Are You Listening?
And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. – 1 Samuel 3:10
Driving home recently from a family vacation, I heard my youngest daughter asking a question from the back seat of the van. I thought she asked if
I wanted to see Great-Aunt Heidi. Knowing we did not have a great-aunt Heidi in our family, I was a little confused. I asked her to repeat her
question one more time. Again she asked, “Do you want to see Great-Aunt Heidi?” Turning down the radio and shifting in my seat to face her I replied,
“We don’t have a great-aunt Heidi.” To my surprise, this brought forth peals of laughter from my husband and both of our girls. “No, Mom,” my daughter
exclaimed, “Do you want to sing ‘Great and Mighty’?”
I had completely misunderstood her for several reasons. I was focused on other things around me, the volume of the radio was too loud, and I had my
back to her. All of these factors, combined, caused me to hear something completely different.
How often does this happen when the Lord is speaking to us? Do we let the “background noise” become so loud we cannot hear Him clearly? Do we completely
misunderstand what He is trying to tell us because of the distractions around us?
While the Lord can certainly speak louder, He often chooses to use a still, small voice. The Lord does not want to compete for our attention. The only
way we can hear His voice is to slow down, remove life’s distractions, and focus on Him.
Focusing on the Lord is not something we can do in the morning and call it good for the day. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the world
is going to honor our personal space and respect our desire to stay tuned in to the Lord. We need to take time often during the day to check our
hearing.
Do not hesitate to tune out the distractions of life and turn down the radios of the world. Do not be afraid to turn and face God and ask, “What did
you say, Lord?”