God's Whisper

Last time I blogged about following our dreams and pursuing  our goals.  However, sometimes we have so many dreams and ideas that we get totally confused.  We find it hard to distinguish which ones are real and which ones are merely distractions keeping us from following our true dreams.  Many people feel lost, without any real direction.  They believe there must be some purpose to their existence, but they have no idea what their actual calling might be.  They try a host of different

 things, but nothing seems to truly speak to their hearts.  

I have often felt this same way.  I enjoy doing so many diverse things, but I end up being frustrated because I seldom get the time to do everything I want to do and in the end accomplish far less than I set out to do.  I often feel like a rudderless dinghy out at sea!  However, when I look around me I notice a fleet of dinghies around me, other people who feel equally lost.  What are we to do?  I wish the universe would put up a huge neon sign pointing "This Way!" , maybe while it's flashing add some sound effects, loud cymbals crashing and bells ringing to make sure we notice the huge signboard.  Would it not have been great if we were given a little fortune cookie at birth telling us about our Life's Purpose?

Alas, there is no neon sign or band, nor fortune cookies to show us the way.  However, there IS something out there trying to get our attention, but we are too busy, too loud and we surround ourselves with so much noise that we miss the very thing we search for: guidance.

Stop! Be quiet, and listen...

Do you hear that?

A gentle flutter of wings...whispers.

We are surrounded by it, but we seldom, very very seldom hear it.  Some people say that the universe speaks to us, I prefer to call it God.  We often expect God to come to us with thunder and lightning, we expect him in the storm winds, but right in the beginning of the Bible we read that "they heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day".  Quietly, softly like a breeze. To hear him we have to be still.  His voice comes to us in many ways.  Sometimes through the loving voices of our parents or people who truly care about us.  Often he uses subtle signs to guide us, divergences along our path or detours that may not make sense to us at the time.  We insist to find better ways, different paths that will lead us to the destinations where we think we should go, only to find ourselves somewhere else entirely.  We get angry about this and resist it with all our power, lets be honest, we throw our toys out of the cot.  But the truth is, if we calm down, if we listen carefully, we realize that on the breeze comes God's whisper "Be still, and know that I am God."

Just this week I was ashamed to realize that the Lord has been trying to send me messages for so long, but I have been too busy with my own plans and ideas to hear his voice.  He has been trying to tell me since I was seven or eight years old.  I ignored him.  Most of my life. Instead I listened to other people telling me the contrary, I accepted their opinion as the gospel.  I listened to my own excuses, my own reasoning.  Yet, still the Lord carried on trying to reach me.  A desire started to well up in me stronger and stronger, but I denied it by getting so very busy with everything else.  Then finally he spoke to me loudly and clearly through the voice of my husband.  At first I laughed at him, but then I stopped and thought, but what if it is really God's plan for me?  What if this longing I have had all my life has been my soul crying out for me to get with God's plan?  What if this is it, the one thing I have been searching for, my purpose? Can I afford to carry on ignoring the Lord's whispers any longer?  Finally I heard him,  Finally, I saw my excuses and my constant procrastination for what it was: FEAR.

Fear is very cunning.  It clothes itself in a myriad of excuses and we believe each and every one of them.  As long as we believe our own excuses we can sit back in our dream chair rocking back and forth and we never have to do anything about it.  Eventually the only thing that remains of our dreams is the dust of thousands of "if only's" that's piled up on top of them.

Are you also wondering which path you should follow, are you searching for something, for a purpose?  Stop listening to the world's version of you, stop listening to fear hiding behind your excuses.  Be still and listen...
When you turn the world's volume down and you turn off your internal dialogue you'll start hearing the soft whispers of God...