“After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 19:12 KJV)
What do you hear?
There’s a well-known story about an Indian young man who left his reservation home to visit a friend who lived in the big city. The streets were filled with vehicles of all sizes, and the noise of it was deafening.
As the two of them walked down the street, suddenly the young man from the reservation stopped, tapped his city friend on the shoulder and whispered, “Stand still for a moment. Do you hear what I hear?”
The city friend just smiled and said, “All I can hear are cars and horns and buses and traffic and the footsteps of many people. What do you hear?”
“There is a cricket somewhere nearby and I hear it chirping.” The city friend stopped and listened very carefully and then shook his head and said, “I think you are kidding yourself. There are no crickets here. And even if there were, how could you possibly hear them with all the noise on this street? So you still think you can hear a cricket?”
“Yes, I do,” said the Indian. “There is one chirping near us right now.” He walked ahead a few steps and then stood beside the brick wall of a house. An ivy vine was climbing up the side of the dwelling. He moved aside a few of its leaves and sure enough there was a cricket there which was chirping loudly.
Once the city boy saw the cricket, he also became aware of the sounds it was making. As he walked along, the city friend said to his Indian friend, “Naturally you were better able to hear the cricket. You Indians can hear better than we can.”
The Indian young man smiled and then shook his head and said, “I don’t agree with you. Indians can’t hear any better than white people can. Now watch and I’ll show you.”
So he reached into his pocket and took out a 50 cent piece and tossed it onto the pavement. The metallic sound of the coin hitting the sidewalk caused many a head to turn in the direction it came from. Then the Indian picked up the coin and put it back into his pocket, and the two young men kept walking along.
“Did you realize, my friend,” said the Indian, “that the ring of that 50 cent piece was no louder than the chirp of the cricket? And still many White people heard it and turned around. On the other hand, I was the only one who heard the cricket. The reason for that is not that an Indian can hear better than the white man. No. The reason is that we always hear very well the things we are accustomed to pay attention to.”
Learn to hear the voice of God
In a similar way, we must train ourselves to hear the voice of God. God sometimes talks to us in a gentle whisper. One translation says, “a still small voice.” But, in today’s loud world we live in, you could be drowning out His voice with all the noisy distraction! We rarely have silence anymore. We listen to music in our cars, plug sound into our ears, and watch screens (with sound) of all sizes and noise levels.
In order to hear God, you must set aside some time every day to read the Bible, talk to God (pray), and then listen!
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” (John 10:27)
