Sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him,
praying only for knowledge of His will for us
and the power to carry that out.
- Step 11
Why is this sometimes so hard? Why is the Creator of the universe so hard to hear sometimes? God is known as One who speaks to us in a still small voice. I was thinking about that this morning after reading a meditation for addicts, Just For Today.
The entry for today in that reading had to do with how we can't force anyone into doing what is right or best for them. Just because we finally got free doesn't mean we can bust everyone our of their prisons. It doesn't work that way, because of the free will issue. Jesus came to set the captives free, but He did not come to force us from our slavery against our will. He called us to come, He promised love and life worth living, but He wants relationship. He wants us, and He wants us to want Him. He allowed us the freedom and the right to say yes or no to Him, and that means that people also have the right to say yes or no to the message of life and freedom and hope and love and joy and peace, even when saying no is making them miserable and unleashing destruction and death into their life.
So we hear His call to come, to surrender our will and rights and deny self and die to self, and in so doing somehow find freedom and life. But then why, when the whole thing is about relationship do we sometimes have such a hard time making contact, feeling and being aware of His presence and hearing His voice, knowing His will? One possibility, of course, is that we aren't really listening for Him. We're like the person who responds to a spouse's request for time and conversation with sure, let's talk, but whose mind is really on other things. We miss so much, and hurt the person wanting to connect with us. The spouse gets tired of hearing the mhmms, the yeahs, and seeing the nods of understanding that are thrown out there, slightly out of place. Finally the spouse gets outrageous and says something ridiculous like, and then Donald Trump promised to step down if I would only take his place as President. To which the spouse replies, that's nice, and proves that they weren't really listening. Jesus doesn't play those games. He knows when we;re listening and desiring to hear His voice and when we aren't really paying attention.
But this morning I thought of another possibility. We sometimes forget that the God with the still, small voice is the same God who spoke and from nothingness came everything. Let there be light, and bang, there was light and everything continued until humanity had life breathed into it. This is the Word made flesh who said to the storm and and the waves of the sea, Be still, and they were still. Can we pause for a second and really think about that?
James Earl Jones was the prefect choice for the voice of Darth Vader, in my opinion. He has one of those voices. He could read a menu, and I'd pay attention. If he told or asked me to do something, my first inclination would be to do it. Maybe his voice doesn't do that to you, but I believe that we have all heard voices that are similar in characteristic to what I'm describing. Someone whose voice commands attention and obedience. There is a charisma and power in them that makes it hard not listen, not to respond, not to buy what they're selling.
And every single one of those folks who make the best inspirational speakers, sales people and con artists because of their voices sound like nothing more than the annoying buzzing of a pest compared to the One who can speak life into a body dead and gone. That's power! Doesn't it make sense that God would have to turn it down a notch or more?
Seriously, the idea of free will would be a farce if He didn't subdue Himself for us. There is no way that God could call us to come and us not immediately follow like mind-wiped automatons at the sound of His voice. That is if Kevin Smith didn't have it right and the unhindered voice of God didn't just obliterate our puny human bodies. How could we possibly not pay attention to the voice that can tell the wind to stop blowing and have it happen? How could we pretend it was love and desire rather than compulsion to listen to Him if we couldn't ignore the sound? The voice of God is one that would make the Sirens seem an easy thing to resist.
The Creator of all that is and was and will be desires us. He wants relationship with us! How awesome is that? He wants us to be aware of His presence and to have conscious contact with Him far more than we desire that. But He wants it to be real. He wants us to want Him. So He dampens the trumpet of His voice. He veils the awareness of His presence so that we are not overwhelmed and compelled by the glory of who He is. Daddy, who has so much awesome glory that the best this creation has to offer is but a pale reflection of He who made it, made it so that when we see something, like a sunset or a flower or the innocent eyes of a child, and the impulse comes to consider the Creator, we can take Him or leave Him.
None of us would do that. If we had a fraction of the power and charisma that the glory of God would demand, if our voice had the power His has, we'd make the world serve and worship is. We would rule. Ask Alexander or a rock star. If we could speak and have people jump to please and serve us, people would be jumping like frogs all day long. And it would be empty and meaningless, because it wouldn't be real. God, who created reality, refuses to settle for less than authentic relationship, love and service. So we are not compelled. We are not forced. And we have the option of choosing to surrender all of us to His love and care. Because His love for us and His respect of our free will is authentic and real, and His voice is still and small.
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