Listening to the
whispers
Dallas Willard writes,
“People are meant to live in an ongoing
conversational relationship with God,
speaking and being spoken to…”
Do you believe this? Do
you ever hear God? Not as an audible voice,
typically. But did you ever have a thought
pop into your head and wonder where it came
from—especially if it is telling you to be
more loving or generous or brave than you
normally would be? Did you ever see
something you ordinarily would have missed,
because you were listening to God?
The thing about God’s
whispers is this: if we ignore them, we’re
the ones who miss out. The more we listen
and obey, the more frequently we will hear
from God. The more opportunities we will
have to live in that conversational
relationship. Seeing actually begins with
listening.
Earlier this month, I
had the opportunity to be the keynote
speaker at a retreat in Kansas. This awesome
three day event was put on by the Covenant
Church. The woman heading up the committee
that planned the retreat was a wonderful
sister named Sue Johnson. Talk about high
energy!
Sue told me an
inspiring story about hearing from God,
which happens to her a lot. She’ll tell you:
it’s not because she’s a spiritual giant.
It’s because she lives her life fully
expecting that God will speak to her, and
God knows that she will listen to him. She’s
been faithful in small things. And she’s
learned that when we listen, we are the ones
who benefit. When we hear God’s voice and
obey, we don’t just get the satisfaction of
serving someone else. We actually
experience God’s love in a profound way. God
meets us in simple whispers and in the act
of service.
Sue says many of these
God moments occur, of all places, at her
local Wal-Mart. So one day, she was checking
out at Wal-Mart, and felt a nudge in her
spirit. God seemed to be whispering that she
needed to turn around and help the woman
behind her unload her full cart of groceries
onto the belt.
Sue was finishing up,
and was in a bit of hurry, and resisted, but
God wouldn’t let the thought out of her
mind. So she finished paying for her own
purchases, then turned and began emptying
the woman’s cart onto the belt. The woman
looked at her in wonderment. My friend
smiled and said, “I’m just supposed to bless
you today.” She continued her work, then
glanced at the woman again, and saw that she
was crying.
“Are you alright?” she
asked.
The woman explained
that she had just been through a very
difficult experience (she didn’t elaborate)
and said she’d sat in her car in the parking
lot, feeling overwhelmed by the task of
getting groceries. She had prayed, “God, if
you love me, show me today.”
My friend nearly hugged
her. “Oh, honey, he does love you!” she
said. “He told me to do this!” They had a
joyful, tearful conversation about how good
God is, that he really does care for us. At
that moment, my friend Sue felt the love of
God so strongly. She experienced God’s love
by being his hands and feet. She chose love
instead of hurry, service over self, and in
that moment, God met her, and blessed
another of his children.
Even though it was my
friend who was doing the serving, she was
the one who also experienced the love of
God. We access God’s love by loving others,
by listening and responding to his voice.
When we open our ears to God, he opens our
eyes to what he is doing in the world, and
how we can be a part of it.
Who is God asking you
to bless today? Who might need a word from
God, and who knows but that your loving
actions could be that very word?
Listen to the whispers.
They are the path into the presence of God.
By hearing God, we begin to see Him more
clearly.
Book Review
The Invisible
by
Arloa Sutter
Wesleyan Publishing House
Retail Price: $14.99
Amazon Price: $10.11
Many of us have heard
God whispering that we need to help the
poor, that we should speak out against
injustice. But we aren’t sure what to do.
We feel overwhelmed by the needs of many
people, or we keep ourselves so busy we
don’t even see the needs that are right in
front of us.
This book, written by
my friend Arloa Sutter, offers very
practical help for seeing and hearing God in
the stories of the poor. Arloa is the
founder and director of Breakthrough Urban
Ministries, which I’ve mentioned numerous
times in this newsletter.
Arloa has lived among
the poor in one of Chicago’s poorest
neighborhoods for 18 years. She has
befriended and served thousands of homeless
people, and those living in poverty in the
neighborhood. She knows what works and what
doesn’t. She has listened to the call of God
on her life and continues to serve him
faithfully by serving the poor. She
unflinchingly tells her own story, her own
struggles, and her journey of compassion.
But in this book, she
also serves the church by issuing a wake-up
call, by offering practical ways that
churches (and individual believers) can
actually make a difference in the lives of
people in need. She gently points out that
some efforts to help the under-resourced
actually make things worse, and we need to
not just rush in but listen to God, and
listen to the people themselves. We need to
really see those who are the invisible ones,
and understand how we can actually help
them.
This book is practical
and helpful, yet doesn’t offer easy answers
or pat formulas. But it does call us to
follow Jesus, and to live in such a way that
we love him by loving the least of these.
Quotable
“To do justice is to
reweave the fabric of shalom, to go to those
places where the fabric of society has
unraveled and do what we can to repair
it.”
--Arloa Sutter, The Invisible
Deeper
Connection
Do you ever hear promptings from God? If
not, is it possible that you simply didn't
recognize his voice? As you go through your
days, ask God to speak to you. Expect him to
put thoughts into your mind, thoughts that
would prompt you toward being more kind,
more loving, more patient. Slow down enough
to listen, and to pay attention. When he
tells you to do something, just try doing
it. By the way, he will never, ever tell you
to do something that contradicts Scripture
or would hurt anyone, and he will never
speak to you with a voice of shame. His is
the voice of love. Today, listen to his
voice.
