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In my last blog, I gave some thoughts on our need to be quiet and listen to God. Less than 24 hours after I wrote it, the following event occurred.

The other night we put Parker to bed and quickly realized that his stuffed animal, Curious George, was missing. Normally Parker won’t even close his eyes without George, but because he was so tired he fell asleep within minutes. Bethany and I gave the house a quick search, but ended up empty handed. I figured that Parker would sleep through the night, wake up and eventually find where he put him the next day.

Good plan…until about an hour later when Parker woke up and with a groggy voice began to cry out “George? Where are you, George?” I quickly ran up to comfort him because I knew that if he fully woke up, we’d never get him back to bed without that dumb monkey. I gave him “Joe”, another stuffed monkey from his aunt and to my surprise, it satisfied him enough to help him close his eyes and go back to sleep.

As I went downstairs, I couldn’t help but hear my son’s crying out for his monkey. “George?” was ringing in my head.

I started looking.

Bethany had heard Parker’s request and she joined in the hunt, both of us with a renewed sense of purpose. Several minutes later, Bethany pried George out from the bottom of Kent’s toy basket. We both presented the monkey to our groggy son who gratefully accepted his “friend” into his arms.

So, back to the beginning. In my last blog I question whether I have the right to ask for God to fix the situations that I often create. Parker created this situation by being careless with George and not taking care of him. It was his fault, his problem, his loss. Yet as a father, all I wanted to do was help my son and to bring him happiness and contentment so he could have a good night sleep.

There certainly are times when we need to be quiet and listen. But what amazes me is that when we do open up and voice our requests/needs/longings, our Father in heaven responds.

The other day I read Ecclesiastes during my morning devotional time. I came across the following verses (5:1) “As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don’t be a fool who doesn’t realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. And don’t make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few.”

Sometimes we talk too much. No, I’m not referring to passing notes or carrying on full conversations during a sermon (though I’m sure that applies somewhere here). I’m talking about how we that believe the world revolves around us and that what we say/believe/think is important/meaningful/true. I mean, when you really consider the fact that God is in heaven and we’re not, it puts things back in perspective. Suddenly my great, lofty ideas become silly. Do I really think that I have any right or ability to tell God how to act/react to my situation (that I probably got myself into by the way)? Do I really believe that I’m doing God a favor by spending time worshiping Him or praying to Him?

Too many people (including myself) spend too much time making empty promises and requests to God when they should be closing theirs mouths and listening. I wonder what would happen if we listened more and spoke less. Maybe we’d hear from Him and figure some things out so we wouldn’t have to open our mouths and ask Him to get us out of a bind later.

This is a good thing. iTunes is starting to offer music without DRM (digital rights management).

DRM is the stuff that makes your iTunes music work only with your iPod. It limits your ability to transfer your purchased music to other formats and devices.

But now that is changing with iTunes plus music. Now you can buy DRM-free music for $1.29 per song (instead of $.99). Plus it will be a higher bit-rate, which means better sound quality than before.

BUT, Apple has apparently left some info on your new iTunes Plus music. Each file will contain your username and email embedded in it. So think twice if you’re going to use a P2P network (i.e. limewire).