Pastor's Corner 5/19/11

Knowing God’s voice

How much noise surrounds us every day? How many voices are making demands on our time, our money, our emotions? How often does the noise blend together until we aren’t even sure who is asking for what anymore? Bosses, children, parents, spouses, friends, telemarketers, charities, salesmen, etc.? All of them pounding us through personal contact, advertising, and mass media.

One of the major causes of stress in modern society is sensory overload.

We have had to learn to tune out many of the voices making demands on us and our resources in order to survive.

Unfortunately, many of us have tuned out God’s voice.

In fact, it’s usually first voice to go.

We know that God will understand while another human won’t.

We are scared to tell family and friends that Sunday morning is for church.

We let people make us rearrange our schedules in order to accommodate their’s because after all church isn’t that important.

We’d rather sleep late on Sunday morning in order to catch up on sleep missed because of overwork or overplay than organize our time and activities more sensibly so that we aren’t lacking in sleep.

We tell ourselves that we don’t really have to go to church in order to be Christian or to worship God since God is everywhere. And over time we stop hearing God’s voice because God often speaks in that still small voice. We can’t hear God because we are unwilling to offend anyone by asking them to speak softly, or even better, to stop talking so that we can hear God.

We need also to quiet down ourselves. We can’t listen to God if we are doing all the talking! And even then, there will still be voices trying to get in the way of our hearing God’s voice. They don’t want us to hear God’s voice. God’s voice is dangerous.

We might take a moral stand on something if we listen to God’s voice. We might risk offending people when we listen to God’s voice. We might start doing God’s work and will if we hear God’s voice. We might follow God instead of secular society if we hear God’s voice. We might stop allowing activities in our families that interfere with our obligations as Christians if we hear God’s voice. We might show up for church most Sundays if we hear God’s voice. We might come to understand that most of the voices we hear and follow are not looking our for our best interests in the long run.

We might come to understand that the voice we thought was God’s wasn’t really God, but our own voice confirming our choices, choices that maybe if we heard God’s voice we would understand were bad for us. How long are we going to risk our lives before we understand that following voices other than God’s can put us and others at serious risk?

The wonderful thing is that God through Christ never stops calling to us to follow, to come to know, to accept God as our shepherd. The psalmist had it right in the 23rd psalm. God will always lead us through dangers and comfort us when our hearts are troubled. And by listening for and knowing God’s voice as sheep know the shepherd’s voice, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of God forever.

Rev. Jeannette Solimine

United Church of Christ

Colfax, WA