Let me tell you a story. This morning, drizzly as it was, while I was on my way to the store for a quick errand, I noticed a woman who was walking on the opposite side of the road. Immediately, I felt an urging inside me to stop, go over to her, and give her an umbrella. I thought “surely, that wouldn’t work. Even if I go up ahead and do a u-turn, there’s nowhere for me to safely pull over there. Besides, hopefully she’s close to where she’s going, and it hasn’t started to rain too hard, yet.” Even as I thought this, though, I knew I was deceiving myself. Yet, I went on ahead, got to the store, did what I needed to and was on my way once more. Headed back the way I came, I noticed the woman was still walking except this time I was on the same side of the road as her. At first I was puzzled because she hadn’t traveled very far; I thought surely she must have stopped somewhere along the way. Regardless, this time, when I heard that voice inside me urging me to stop - even stronger than the first time - I knew I couldn’t not listen to it.
Having already passed her (it really wasn’t a very long stretch of road), I pulled over in an empty lot, got my umbrella from my trunk, and then was on the road again … headed back in the direction that she was walking. I still had no clue how or where I was going to be able to safely stop and give her the umbrella, and I didn’t know what her reaction would be when I finally did. Yet, I knew one thing. Having experienced that voice numerous times before, I knew it wasn’t my own inner consciousness telling me to do this. I had no doubt it was God and not listening to God has only gotten me in trouble before. Besides, with all of the rain we have been getting and are bound to get over the next several days, I genuinely did want to give her that umbrella. While it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, nobody deserves to have to trek through the rain without any kind of protection, and truly, sometimes the small things can have the biggest impact.
As it was, as I grew closer to where she had gotten to, I noticed that just ahead of her there was an empty lot. An empty lot. I quickly pulled in and parked the car, and just as I got out of the car, she walked right in front of where I had parked. We didn’t speak much more than a few sentences to each other as I could tell she was in a hurry and a bit taken aback, but I gave her the umbrella and wished her a good day. All of that is to say this: we - and I most certainly include myself as I hope this story demonstrates - tend to be quick to say with our human and naturally fallible reasoning, “no, I can’t possibly do that” or “but that doesn’t make any sense” when we hear that inner voice encouraging us to do something. It is important that we are able to understand and distinguish between our own inner voice and the quiet urging of God. Coming to know the voice of God is a wonderful part of the continuing nature of spiritual formation. I firmly believe that it doesn’t take just one shape, one voice, but that instead, it (and thereby, God) appears to each of us in a specific way that best reaches us, as individuals. Personally, I have learned that when I hear that urging to do something, it is God asking me to follow Him in whatever the circumstance or situation may be.
While the voice may appear different for each of us, what is important for all of us is the same: we must learn to continually be more sensitive to God’s calling in our lives. The society we are so immersed in is a very fast-paced one. If we let it, we could easily get swept along with the busyness of the world and in the process, lose touch with that quiet (and sometimes not so quiet) voice of God as He seeks to gently lead and guide us. We need to learn to be still in the midst of the loudness of the world. For as Isaiah 30:21 says, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” And as Philippians 2:13 says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Even when what is being asked may seem silly or without reason, God always has a plan and a purpose. We are called to trust in that - to trust and believe in God.
By Meredith Bond, 2018
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