How's Your Hearing?

We just spent a few days in London. Noisy London.

One of the afternoons, in an attempt to get the best price theatre tickets, we checked at the box office of one theatre while our friends checked prices on-line. We needed to keep in touch.

After we ascertained the best price from the box office, we headed down Oxford Street. Buses roared by, taxis accelerated and then stopped, braking noisily, an ambulance hurtled past, siren blaring. First we realized that Don’s fancy phone wouldn’t get a signal, so we switched to my basic pay as you go cheapo phone. Although we thought we were listening for the sound of my phone ringing, our friend phoned us four times to no avail. When I realized that despite our alertness, there was just too much noise for us to hear it ring, I switched the phone to silent and slipped it into my jeans pocket, where the vibrations alerted me the next time our friend phoned.

Our lives are often like that. The noise of work, of friends and colleagues and the thoughts going on in our own heads drown out ... God. God loves each one of us and the desire of his heart is to have a real relationship with us. If you think God never bothers to speak to you, maybe you just can’t hear him. Maybe you limit your expectations of how he will speak to you to one particular way. But God is the great creator who is not limited in any way. He delights in diversity – look at the diversity of our world if you doubt that – and so why would he limit himself to just one way for communicating with his children?

Next time you complain that God never speaks to you, think again. Maybe he’s speaking in a way you didn’t expect. Through a beautiful sky or sunset. Through the words someone else says to you. Through an article in the newspaper or a film at the cinema. Or, more traditionally, through the Bible or a sermon or Christian book. 

If you quieten yourself long enough, you might just sense a nudge from his Spirit, or hear a soft whisper, or sense his delight in you. Take time to step aside from the Oxford Street of your life, and use all your senses to hear from the living God.