“Yes, mommy! I’m coming!” my little sister yelled as she
came toddling down the hallway in response to my mom calling her name. “Rachel, come here!” Mom repeated from across
the house. “Yes mommy, I’m coming,” again was the response. It was a game we
played again and again. “Rachel, when I call your name you need to respond and
come right away. The happy way is to obey,” Mom would explain. What appeared to
her a game was also much more than that. It was a lesson in obedience. In
listening. In going where you’re called, when you’re called.
This story of my sister is the scene that flashed before my
eyes this morning at Grace Episcopal Church as Dr. Smith read from 1 Samuel 3.
This passage tells the story of the little boy Samuel sleeping comfortably in
the temple of God. Suddenly he hears his name being called. I imagine that he
had been trained, much like my sister and I, to come immediately and willingly
when called. He ran to Eli, who was his priest, mentor, and father figure, with
the quick response, “Here I am. You called me.” Groggily, Eli mutters that he
didn’t call the boy and that he should go back to sleep. Samuel, again
obedient, shuffles back to his pallet and lies down. This same thing happens
again! His name is called, he responds in obedience by running to Eli’s side,
and is told to go back to sleep. The third time, Eli realizes that Samuel must
really be hearing something. We do not know if Eli had himself heard the voice
of God before, or whether he only logically concluded that this was the only
remaining explanation for the voice Samuel keeps hearing. Whichever the case may
be, Eli tells Samuel to go back to his bed, and if he hears the voice again to
respond to God with the phrase, “Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.”
Can you imagine how scared and confused Samuel must have
been? He keeps hearing his name called, but no one can figure out why. When the
explanation finally comes, the truth is scarier than the unknown. The Lord God
Almighty is talking to HIM! He may have
thought, What can the God of the Universe
possibly have to say to little me? I’m just a boy who works in the temple. I do
my job and help Eli. Surely there is nothing that God could have to say to me.
Instead, God turns Samuel’s world upside down by speaking audibly to him with a
prophecy of the future that included the demise of the line of Eli for all generations.
His only response could be “Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.”
As we discussed the story during Sunday school hour, we
considered the following questions:
- Do you think we are living in a time when the “word of the Lord” and visions are especially rare, or not?
- Have you ever mistaken another voice or call for the voice of the Lord?
- What made Eli accurately perceive that the Lord was calling Samuel?
- If you hear the voice or call of the Lord in your life, what is that voice like? How do you know that the voice belongs to the Lord?
- How can you make room in your life to listen for the Lord’s call?
I really appreciated this line of
questioning, because it brought me back to considering if we can really hear or
know that God is speaking to us. And if we can hear, how do we know?
It can be so hard to hear the
voice of God. Whether it is because “the word of the Lord is rare” (1 Sam. 3:1)
or just because we are not listening, it seems like the noise of our lives
quickly drowns out anything that God might really be saying to us.
When I do feel and sense God’s
guidance, I am so quick to second-guess it. It is easy to point to His voice
for the little things. Maybe I wouldn’t have had a joyful reunion with the mom
of a friend I hadn’t seen for years unless we both had to go to the bathroom at
the exact same time during church. Maybe if I hadn’t been running 5 minutes
late I would be the one in that car wreck on the highway instead of the person
who was. I can thank God for what feels like little moments of providence. But
what about when he calls my family across the country? When I am looking for a
job? When I am trying to figure out who to marry? When I don’t understand the
death of a friend or family member?
Where is God then? How is he speaking in these situations? In the “big”
things in life, it’s a whole lot harder to attribute what I am hearing,
thinking and feeling to God Almighty. Am I the only one who has a hard time
with this? As a senior about to graduate from college, this whole what-does-God-want-me-to-do-with-my-life thing is big, huge and hairy reality.
I imagine that hearing God is a
lot like my little sister hearing my mom calling. It is best to respond right
away with an attitude of willingness and obedience. Yet, even if she does not
hear or respond, mom keeps calling her until she does. The same thing happens
with Samuel and the Lord. It was not until the fourth try that God finally got
Samuel’s attention and willingness to listen! But God didn’t give up on him. He
just keep persistently speaking until Samuel recognized and turned to Him.
Praise God that he does the same thing with us. He doesn’t give up on us. He
keeps calling, hoping that we will pause, listen, and obey.
Secondly, it was important to me
that Eli pointed Samuel toward the voice of God. It’s kind of like if mom were calling for my
sister, but instead of her hearing, I heard her instead. I could easily say,
“Rachel, I hear mom calling for you! You should listen!” How often do we desire
confirmation of the call that God is giving us? When those around of us point
to our lives and say, “I think God is trying to tell you something,” it pushes
us to accept the work of God in our lives, to listen carefully, and to
relinquish the fear that somehow we are just telling ourselves the “truth” we
want to believe. It helps us stop questioning and start believing.
How do we listen? I would love to
say that we just pray and read the Bible and that solves all our problems. But
I don’t believe that is the whole answer. We also need friends that point us to
God. Silent moments to listen to Him. Faith to believe that He is talking. Eyes
that look for His work in the big things and the small ones. Perseverance to
hold on to what God has told us even when the going gets tough. A willingness
and flexibility to exchange our “good” plans for his “best” plans. A heart
willing to praise God whether we like what his voice is telling us, or whether
we would like to run away to Tarsus like Jonah did when God called him to do
something he never wanted to do. To trust that believes that God has the best for
us even when we cannot see it clearly.
I love prayer we ended with today
in Sunday school as well. It’s from the Book of Common Prayer, and it goes like
this:
Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: we humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares on occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (p. 100)
