The Voice of God (or, Eh? Can You Speak Up?)

Big changes on the horizon and I’ve been looking to hear from God, an affirmation here, a nod there. You know, those reassurances that we’re on the right track. Doubts flare, options abound. I know the destination but how to get there is varied. Which choices do I make today, at this very moment? Did you ever just wish God’s voice would boom down from Heaven and give you a clue?

Big changes on the horizon and I’ve been looking to hear from God, an affirmation here, a nod there. You know, those reassurances that we’re on the right track. Doubts flare, options abound. I know the destination but how to get there is varied. Which choices do I make today, at this very moment? Did you ever just wish God’s voice would boom down from Heaven and give you a clue?

I was wishing this when Brian McClaren’s voice boomed across the page in his retelling of Luke, The Voice of Luke: Not Even Sandals. Within Luke 1 when Zacharaias has his encounter with Gabriel, McClaren writes his devotional notes as if he had been reading my diary:

“Often in the biblical story, when people receive a message from God, after getting over the initial shock, they start asking questions. They push back; they doubt. However, when the word of the Lord comes to people, it doesn’t turn them into unthinking zombies or robots; it doesn’t override their individuality or capacity to think. Perhaps many of us in some way hear the voice of the Lord, but we don’t realize it because we’re expecting lightning flashes and a voce with a lot of reverb, a voice so overpowering that we are incapable of questioning and doubting it.”

Booming voice with reverb? Um, yeah, that’s what I wanted. The voice that makes all other options melt away with the only one I should follow remaining? Uh-huh.

Immediately, Elijah came to mind. Just rereading 1 Kings 9, I was astounded that I thought God might show up in some big thunderous cloud and tell me which plane ticket to buy for my trip. (I see now that there are plenty of reasons to think that my expectations were astounding, but hey, when you’re in the throes of leaving the country, you get a bit nuts.) If God was going to be leading me, it wouldn’t be in the powerful wind, but in the whisper (1 Kings 9:12).

And to tell the truth, if God was whispering at me, I wouldn’t have heard Him. I was too busy listening to myself, others, and just running around in circles. It was when I finally sat down to be still and hear Him that I remembered He whispers. It was then that I picked up McClaren’s book of Luke and was reminded of all this.

Silly, isn’t it? I was running around trying to get God to yell at me what to do as I passed by. Once I finally stopped running and sat still, I remembered that He whispers, and the loudest thing He whispers is His love. Now if that’s not a reason to listen up, I don’t know what is.