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One rather frustrating Sunday morning the teacher of the junior high class decided to try a little experiment with her students. What made the morning difficult was that some of the students were having a hard time concentrating on the lesson while other students were struggling to keep quiet. The teacher asked for three volunteers, explaining that all they had to do was talk, which certainly would not seem to be a difficult task for thirteen and fourteen year olds. Of the three students who volunteered, one was a talkative girl other classmates affectionately nicknamed "Motor-mouth." Her consuming interest was hair styles along with the latest fashions. She would have no difficulty talking. The boy who volunteered was interested in sports; he would share the latest scores and the statistics of his favorite teams. He would have no difficulty talking either. The third student who volunteered was more reserved but with some persuading agreed to participate.

The three students stood before the others and were given final instructions: all they had to do was talk for two minutes without stopping. The only catch was that all three had to talk at the same time. The teacher, looking at her watch, told the students to begin talking. The first girl began predictably talking about the latest fashions, including what was "hot" and in style and what was not. The second student began a play-by-play account of the baseball game he had watched the evening before. The third student told of coming to church that morning with his family and seeing a car broken down on the side of the road.

When the two minutes were up, the out-of-breath students stopped talking. When the teacher asked the rest of the class what they heard, the students were somewhat puzzled. No one could recall in detail what the three had said at the same time. Some picked up parts of what the three said, but no one could recall what all three had said. There were some in the class who listened closely to what one student said and were able to recall with some accuracy what was said, but no one knew what all three had said.

Then came time for the lesson. The wise teacher explained to the class that in life there will always be many voices crying out for attention. The students themselves would have to choose which voices they would listen to. This was one lesson that the students would remember for a long time.

Long ago there was another teacher with students distracted by other voices. These students' classroom was the busy marketplace. The teacher gathered students around the city gate and began to teach. The marketplace was a busy place with swarms of activity going on all around them. The students could not help but be distracted; some were more interested in what was going on around them than what their wise teacher was teaching them. This ancient teacher was very wise and creative with his teaching methods. Some of the young men in that class were interested in the women calling out in the street, so this creative teacher personified or embodied wisdom as a woman calling out in the street, vying for attention.

"How long, O simple ones," the voice of wisdom calls out, "will you love being simple?" The students were more interested in what was going on around them than their teacher. The simple person referred to someone who intentionally avoided wisdom or knowledge. The simple person did not suffer from any learning disability. The wise teacher wanted his students to realize that they were paying too much attention to the wrong voices. In addition, the wise teacher wanted his students to understand that there would be consequences in later life, due to their lack of attention now. "I will pour out my thoughts to you," wisdom says. "I will make my words known to you." From a wealth of knowledge the wise teacher enlightened his student. What was being taught was important, but there were too many distractions for the students to pay close attention. If they failed to gain wisdom, the day would come when these students would fall flat on their faces. At that time the wise teacher "will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you." On that day it will be too late. Disaster surely will strike.

It is no secret that there are many voices in our world competing for our attention. There are many nonessential activities that lead us away from God and Jesus. When we fall into the trap of listening to these other voices we have a hard time hearing the voice of God in our lives. It's not that God whispers so softly to us that we cannot hear. It's that there are so many voices competing for our attention that God's voice is frequently drowned out. We do not always hear God in our busy lives.

"There was a time in my life when it seemed to me that things could get no worse," Carl candidly admits. Carl and his wife were separated, and to add to his problems he was out of work. "I had not been going to church," Carl says, "and I felt sure that I had slipped out of God's grace." Then one day while using a friend's telephone, he noticed a painting hanging on a nearby wall. As he looked at the painting he stopped talking mid-sentence. His eyes locked on the painting of a sheep that had strayed from the flock and fallen over the side of a ledge. The wandering animal was unable to climb back up on its own.

Carl recalls that his heart melted as he looked at the shepherd of the flock bent over the ledge, straining with arm extended to reach this lone, stray sheep. Carl quickly told the person he was speaking with on the telephone that he had to go. He hung up the phone and stood there captivated by the painting. Tears began running down Carl's face as he looked at the painting, realizing that he was the lost sheep and how very much God loved him. "This picture reminded me that each one of us and I are infinitely important to God," Carl reflects. We cannot stray so far that God will not seek us out.

Even though we may have rejected God or not heeded God's calling, it is never too late for us to return to God. Faith in God is a gift from God in the same way that wisdom is. Wisdom is a gift from God and not something we can obtain by our own efforts. The wise teacher taught, "Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord ... they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices." Therefore when we reject the gift, we are rejecting the giver.

The beginning of wisdom is fear or reverence for the Lord God. What we learn from reading the Bible, participating in Sunday school classes, and attending worship leads to inward knowledge which is valuable. Inward knowledge in and of itself is not enough. Our inward knowledge should lead us to action. Our actions soon become habits and eventually habits produce our character.

People come to faith though many different channels. People hear the voice of God in their lives in many different ways. Not everyone hears the voice of God at a certain age; some are young while others are older. It really does not matter at what age we come to faith; what matters is that we do come to faith. The path we have traveled is not as important as our final destination. Alcoholics Anonymous has been called the underground spiritual movement of our time. The first step in recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem that you cannot solve yourself. Persons in AA are supported and encouraged by each other. It is not an uncommon experience for persons to come to faith while attending AA meetings.

Several years ago a group of Russian drug addiction experts visited the United States and attended several AA meetings. They were hoping and searching for something that could be used to fight the serious problem of alcoholism in their country. They listened to the stories people told of firsthand experiences. They talked to persons attending AA meetings. Through their research they reasoned that there was something here that could help people trapped by alcohol addictions. They could not completely figure out what the solution was.

At the end of one meeting they approached their hosts, several of whom were themselves recovering alcoholics. "We want to make alcoholics like that," the Russian experts said. "Teach us how."

The hosts smiled in gentle understanding. "Well, that's what we have been doing this evening," one responded. "You see, you learn how to be like that only by being like that."

"But," the Russians sputtered, "surely there must be something you could share with us, a technique, a certain kind of approach, some kind of trick that would make this all a little easier?"

"No," came the reply. "What you see in this room, what you want to take home with you, is spirituality, and if there is one thing that all alcoholics discover, it is that there are no shortcuts to spirituality, no techniques that can command it, and especially no 'tricks.' That's what we tried to find in the bottle, in booze, in alcohol. It did not work. What we have learned is that the only technique is what we call 'a four letter word.' It is spelled T-I-M-E."

Amid the numerous voices calling for your attention is the very voice of God. The other voices might be more flashy or glamorous or get our attention first, but the advice from Proverbs is: Do not be fooled. Eventually these other voices will lead you astray. Only by listening to the clear channel voice of God can we discover life in all its fullness. The voice of wisdom says, "Those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease." The good news is that it is never too late for us to respond to God.