April 22, 2008
Out of Context
Posted by Anna under Listening, musings | Tags: geese, hearing God's voice, Holy Spirit |I changed the ringtone on my phone last week. Ever since, I’ve missed virtually every call. The new ringtone is super-cool. It’s the honking of a flock of geese.
But here’s the thing. When I’m inside, it goes off and I think, “What’s that now?” And by the time I realize what it is, it’s too late to pick it up. When I’m outside, it goes off and I look around for the geese.
And I’ve been thinking about listening for the voice of God.
Sometimes, when we compartmentalize our lives too much and think about God on Sundays, but pretty much go our own way the rest of the week, we miss the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. It is out of context and we have a “what’s that now?” type reaction if we even hear it at all.
On the other hand, if you will permit me to stretch the analogy a bit, inside the church, the honking of our own voices, schedules, strivings and agendas can oftentimes drown out the voice of God or, even worse, be mistaken for the voice of God.
What do you think? How do you quiet yourself so that you don’t miss or drown out what God has to say to you?
April 24, 2008 at 9:14 am
As a family, one of the best choices we ever made was not to watch TV every night (for a number of years we didn’t even own one). The first hurdle to quieting internally is sometimes to not be afraid of external quiet.
Very practically speaking, along the same lines, I find that, as an avid talk radio listener, I just need to TURN IT OFF sometimes. This seems to happen more and more frequently–I need my mind cleared of that interesting but sometimes overdone commentary on life so that I can listen for the Lifegiver.
In church, I sit in the balcony. When the balcony was unavailable during Worship I for a time, I was a great deal more outwardly distracted, impacting my inner quiet.
Singing hymns and praise music quiets me inwardly because it draws my focus to God. Singing in the shower and shower inspirations work in tandem!
April 30, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I enjoyed that too much not to comment.
I still haven’t figured it out. The real answer is that I don’t drown it out - I’m missing most if not all of his suggestions/directions. I know that because of where I am. If I had been listening I wouldn’t be in the heap of trouble I’m in.
It’s really interesting - you know, small world stuff - that you tagged me on twitter, then I ended up here reading this post because someone very important just said to me yesterday: Let me know what you hear. She had been listening intently to God and wanted to know if I was hearing the same thing.