By: J. Meyer
Someone
once told me of a one-act play with three characters – a father, a mother, and
a son who had just returned from Viet Nam – who are sitting at a table to talk.
The play lasts thirty minutes, and they all get their chance to talk. There’s
only one problem: No one listens to the others.
The
father is about to lose his job. The mother had once held just about every
office in the church, and now younger women are pushing her aside. The son
struggles with his faith. He had gone to war, seen chaos and death, and now is
bewildered about life.
At
the end of the play, the son stands and heads toward the door. “You haven’t
heard a word I’ve said,” is his parting remark, as he walks out of the room.
The
parents look at each other, and the mother asks, “What did he mean?”
What
the parents didn’t get – and the audience obviously does – is that the son
struggles to believe in a loving, caring God. Every time he tries to explain,
one of the parents interrupts with something they want to say. The soldier
needed to hear from God. Hoping his mother or father would be the channel
through which God would speak, he went to them. However, they were not
available for God to use because they were not quiet enough to hear Him. All
three of them were so distraught and noisy that they all left the same way they
came. What might have happened had they really listened to one another, and
then quietly prayed and waited on God? I am sure the outcome would have been
very different and much more rewarding.
In
the closing scripture, I quoted part of the story of Elijah to make this point
clear. That deeply committed prophet had defied the wicked King Ahab and Queen
Jezebel for years. The big moment came on Mount Camel when Elijah destroyed 450
prophets of Baal. Later, when Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him, he ran
away, apparently in terror.
He
must have been worn out by the powerful events. Then suddenly the man was
alone, with no crowds, no one trying to kill him, and no one to talk to. Just
before the two verses mentioned above, Elijah had gone into a cave to hide out.
When God asked him what he was doing there, he spoke of his zeal for God. Then
he told God that the children of Israel had gone astray, killing prophets, “And
I, I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away (v. 10).
God
brought strong winds, falling rocks, an earthquake, and fire. I think that was
the way Elijah expected God to appear – in the miraculous and powerful. But the
writer tells us God wasn’t in those things.
This
is really the spiritual principle of God at work. We can find the devil in the
noise and the shouts. We can find the devil with big attractions to lead us
astray. But God likes to speak in the still, small voice – the voice that not everyone
will hear – the voice that only the committed will listen for.
As
long as Elijah sought the dramatic, he wouldn’t hear God. But when he pulled
back and listened for the inner voice, the soft, non-demanding voice of the
Holy Spirit, Elijah would communicate with God.
What
kind of voice from God are you listening for? Will you recognize the still,
small voice when you hear it? Do you take time to be quiet and just listen? If
not, there is no better time to begin than right now.
And
He said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord
passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces
the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind
an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake
a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire (a sound of gentle
stillness and) a still, small voice. – 1 Kings 19: 11-12
Wise God, like Elijah and many others, I
often look for the loud, the exciting, and the showy. I know that You sometimes
use healings and miracles, but I ask You to help me listen most of all in the
soft stillness for the quiet ways in which You speak. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
Amen.
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