Of twisted heart and of being brain dead

A Native American and his friend were in downtown New York City, walking near Times Square in Manhattan. It was during the noon lunch hour and the streets were filled with people. Cars were honking their horns, taxicabs were squealing around corners, sirens were wailing, and the sounds of the city were almost deafening. Suddenly, the Native American said, "I hear a cricket." His friend said, "What? You must be crazy. You couldn't possibly hear a cricket in all of this noise!" "No, I'm sure of it," the Native American said, "I heard a cricket." "That's crazy," said the friend. The Native American listened carefully for a moment, and then walked across the street to a big cement planter where some shrubs were growing. He looked into the bushes, beneath the branches, and sure enough, he located a small cricket. His friend was utterly amazed. "That's incredible," said his friend. "You must have superhuman ears!" "No," said the Native American. "My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you're listening for." "But that can't be!" said the friend. "I could never hear a cricket in this noise." "Yes, it's true, "came the reply. "It depends on what is really important to you. Here, let me show you." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. And then, with the noise of the crowded street still blaring in their ears, they noticed every head within twenty feet turn and look to see if the money that tinkled on the pavement was theirs. "See what I mean?" asked the Native American. "It

all depends on what's important to you...” What's important to you? What do you listen for?

Fantastic story, huh? But believe you me, it caused me the sudden death of my brain and my heart danced to the Latin music. What happened to me just recently didn't have a meaning and I thought it was just another painful memory of emotional and mental bashing until I read the story.

When my being a wife was questioned a few weeks back, I wondered how evil this person must be to be able to make other people believe in a lie. When my being a mother was questioned too, this time I thought this person is not only evil but the devil incarnate! Pardon the weird stuff but that was why my brain ran like a dot matrix printer complete with the sound effects. How can one person lie in as much as believing in the lie and look at me straight in the eye and lie some more? Twisted? Maybe. Psychotic? Perhaps! Pathetic? Oh well, what could be more pathetic than a pathological liar?

So, how is the story related to my experience? At that time, I was just hearing twisted lies about me. I should have been listening instead. At that time I was not listening, would you? Could you? But I should have. It took me a week to finally realize there was a message because at that time I was blinded by my tears and I felt numb caused by the pain I felt hearing all those lies. Did I fight back and defend myself? I don't remember. My brain went blank. Maybe I did at some point. But at that time I guess, I thought of it as useless and pointless to do so for it was all lies. Other people though may have a different opinion on that but I don't really care and it doesn't really matter now. Anyway, it is only now that I realized that the message is so clear but I wanted to listen what was important to me at that time, the TRUTH! Nothing was wrong with that then but I should have known what was really important. God was trying to tell me something then and I know that now. “Nothing should be more important to me than my family”. It wasn't even because they were not, hence the message, but it was more in a deeper sense and another eye opener.

Some people say that there is no God, and that He never speaks to us anymore. But perhaps they can't see or hear Him because they aren't listening for Him. They are living for themselves, not for God. If you are in tune with God, you will be able to notice Him at work in your life and in the world. And you'll be able to hear Him when He speaks. I was not aware before that when I suddenly wake up in the middle of the night or almost morning is more like it, He is trying to speak to me in prayer. In the middle of all the clutter in this world, God always finds a way to speak to us so we must listen, listen, and listen some more.

By the way, my being brain dead and all, my heart thumping like drums in a Latin concert and all is just a momentary state of being. I'm perfectly back to my usual self now.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18)