You Called?

“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)