Over the past two days, we’ve been reflecting on listening, and we continue that theme today.

I remember years ago, one night at dinner, just completely out of the blue, my middle daughter Emily, who was about 3 at the time, reached over and slapped her older sister upside the head. Her sister started to cry, and I asked, “Emily, why did you do that?” She looked up at me and said, “God told me to!” 

Pastor’s kids!  God didn’t tell her to do that!  Maybe she thought he did… or maybe she was just saying what she thought I would want to hear. But, it does raise the question, how do we listen for God?

Yesterday I mentioned that several years ago, I taught a class on Marjorie Thompson’s book, “Soul Feast.” In the book, she makes the point that even though God sometimes speaks directly to people like Samuel, God most often speaks to us without words.

Sometimes God speaks to us through our consciousness. But we have to be careful. Our consciousness is not always completely accurate. My daughter Emily was the prime example. Obviously, she was angry about something that had happened earlier in the day between her and her sister. And I’m sure, in her three-year-old heart, she felt that smacking her sister was the right thing to do.

The wisdom of our faith is: that when our consciousness lines up with the teachings of Jesus, we know we are on the right track. When they don’t line up with the teachings of Jesus, we know we are probably off base. And this is true for other ways of listening to God as well. 

I would also add, sometimes by really and truly listening to those we love and trust, God can speak into our lives. If you’ve ever had a mentor, or been gently guided or challenged by someone else, just at the right time, then you know exactly what I’m talking about… Again, run it through the filter of the teachings of Jesus.

It’s not always easy to listen though, is it? Especially in our day and age when there is noise coming at us from every side.  If it is going to happen, we have to be intentional about it. We have to build in time for quiet and reflection. 

Remember the prayer that Eli gave Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening…”

Let us pray: God of hope, we pause even now for just a moment in your presence. Help us to carve out time apart with you. Grant us open ears, and open hearts, that we would be attuned to your peace and guidance; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Yesterday we reflected on listening for the still small voice of God. 

It is interesting to me, how so often in the scriptures, when God calls a person, he calls the name twice: Abraham, Abraham. Moses, Moses, Saul, Saul. Samuel, Samuel… It’s like when my girls were little – trying to get my attention: Dad! Dad! It’s almost as if God knows it’s going to get two tries to get us to tune in and listen… (Sometimes it takes more than two, doesn’t it!)

I remember years ago, meeting an older Catholic nun while staying at a retreat center in Geneva, Switzerland. This woman had served all over the world. You know the kind of person you just feel drawn to – that was her. She had that presence about her. And she had this way of making everyone she met feel like they were the most important person in the room. You could tell she genuinely cared.

I was there with a group of students – most of us studying to be pastors.  She reminded us that the greatest gift you can a person – is to listen to them. Not the kind of listening you do, while you’re on your phone, or while you’re thinking of what you’re going to say next.  But really listening…

Presbyterian scholar and pastor Eugene Peterson once wrote: “You enter into the soul of somebody else by not by telling them something, but by listening to them.”

That’s a wonderful gift to give to someone. And as David Augsburger once said, “An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart.”

I know it’s true with other people – but it is especially true with God.

In the book of 1 Samuel, the boy Samuel is training under an elderly priest named Eli. One night, God calls to him, but Samuel doesn’t know what he’s hearing. He goes in to wake up Eli. And once Eli clues in on what’s happening, he gives Samuel a model prayer. He says Samuel, when you hear the nudge again, say: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening…”

What a simple, yet powerful prayer.  

Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.

Let us pray: God of hope, we pause even now for just a moment in your presence. Help us to carve out time apart with you. Grant us open ears, and open hearts, that we would be attuned to your peace and guidance; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today’s message was written by my friend, Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

In Psalm 8:1 we read: “O, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” 

The sun was taking its last breath of day and the moon began to shine in its place of honor. Only a small sliver of moon was scheduled to show, but it arrogantly glinted on the opposite edge, attempting to reflect the glorious sun as it made its exit. My eye could fill in the complete circle of light, delighting in the stubborn nature of the moon in the sky of the gentle south. I made my way across the shifting sand, sinking in with each step. As I crested the small mound of sand I could see the Gulf, the setting sun, the rising moon. It was almost too much for my senses to accept. Each and every sense was stimulated. My eyes have never seen such color before. Only God could mix the hues before me. Only my creator could fade one color so perfectly into the next. The setting sun was brilliant. I could feel God. God was there enjoying the intensity of the experience with me. I felt cradled in his loving grace and oh, so grateful to be alive on this planet. I was blessed to stand in that one place, in that one moment of time. 

Let us pray: Thank you, Lord, for showing me a glimpse of heaven. Thank you for giving me senses to experience you fully. Allow me to hold this memory forever and to remember this passage from Psalm 8:1: “O, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Loving God, we thank you for the majesty of each day and mystery of each velvet night. Our lives are wonderfully made, fragile as lace, strong as spider webs. We pray for those all over your world whose days are gray instead of the ever-changing kaleidoscope of color that paints our lives. O, Lord, be thou our vision. Help us make this day a masterpiece. Through the amazing grace of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

John 3:16 reminds us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” 

One of the great Christian thinkers, William Sloane Coffin, reminded us that while Abraham lived to be a ripe old age, Jesus died young. “But didn’t both show us that it is by its content rather than by its duration that a lifetime is measured?  Love and you are a success, whether or not the world thinks so. The highest purpose of Christianity… is to love.”

Love and you are a success!  Today, I invite you to reflect on this world that God so loves.  Are there places or people in the world around you who might need a little extra measure of that love right now? How might you show that love in those places or to those people most in need? 

Let us pray: God of Hope, we praise you for your unconditional love, mercy, and grace. You give and you give and you give. We want to be the kind of people who give with you. We want to be the kind of people who make a positive difference in the lives of others.  So, we ask you to heal us where we need healing, and challenge us where we need to be challenged. Open our eyes to the need around us, and show us how we might reflect your love.  Amen.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes:

“You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3)

Yesterday we reflected on the question: If your life is a letter, Christ’s love letter to the world, who has helped prepare that letter? 

Today, I am remembering a couple of others who have impacted my life for the better.

I think about a young student I taught in Jamaica who had a deep faith. Many of my students came to school hungry. Many lived in homes that had dirt floors and no running water. She was one of them. Yet, I often watched her share what little food she had with the younger kids. I remember her telling me with all sincerity that she among all people was so blessed. She had this light in her, this inner joy. And remember thinking – I want to live like that…

And also I remember a few years earlier when I was teaching high school up in North Carolina. At that point in my life, I had been away from the church for a number of years, and, I struck up a friendship with another teacher. We used to surf together.  I remember noticing that he often spent evenings and weekends mentoring youth – going to youth groups and soccer games and plays. And this was not because he got extra compensation – he didn’t.

I remember asking him why. Why do you do this? And he said: You know these teenage years can be so difficult. And with all they are going through, I know it is hard for them to find a place to feel accepted just as they are. And if they don’t find it, they’ll keep looking. Maybe they think they’ll find it with alcohol or drugs or the wrong crowd. Joe, I believe God loves them and accepts them with no strings attached. And I can’t just tell them, I have to show them. 

I remember thinking: If that’s what following Jesus is about, I’m in!

If my life is a letter, being written by Christ… there are many along the way who have helped prepare it. And I’m sure that is true for you as well. 

If our lives are a letter, we are ever faced with the question: What do we want it to say? And who do we want to allow to shape it? 

Let us pray: God of grace, we thank you today for the people who have impacted our lives for the better, and for those who are even now helping shape our faith. Keep us also mindful of those who are looking up to us; through Jesus Christ. Amen.