Speak Lord…

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.