Here I am with Anna Mei--my "take life by the horns and shake it till its teeth rattle" girl!
Hello, all--
One of the ways I discern the Lord's voice speaking is when so many different experiences and areas of life all seem to converge upon a central message. This week in school, our third grader Anna Mei is working with punctuation marks for different kinds of sentences. We have drilled many declarative, interrogative and exclamatory sentences. She has no difficulty with declarative or interrogative sentences, but the exclamatory sentences frequently evade her. I find this humorous because Anna Mei's whole life is lived as an "excited utterance." She is a breathing exclamation point! (Perhaps that is part of the difficulty--her life is so interesting, amazing, and wondrous to her, the printed words on a page just ca n't begin to measure up in excitement or emotion.)
In Vietnamese classes, I am learning to pronounce words, and memorizing vocabulary. But knowing these "mechanics" do not help me communicate if I cannot learn to "hear" the words spoken by another person and understand them. Often, I have to pause, see the words in my mind, interpret them, and then respond. Needless to say, talking to me in Vietnamese is one slow proposition!
Christian author Dallas Willard has some deep insights about hearing the voice of God. His premise (and a right one, I believe) is that Scripture makes it clear that God wants to communicate specifically, understandably, and intimately with His children. Willard also writes that, while many people say they want to hear God, in reality, they do not. He writes, "Because they want to run their lives without interference from God and do not want to be converted from their habitual ways, they position themselves before God in such a way that they "listen, but not understand."" (see Mark 4:12)
The Lord has spoken plainly in His Word about so many things we are to do: be thankful, grant forgiveness, think on good and righteous things, be truthful, in remain faithful in marriage, and so on. When we knowingly "opt out" from these instructions, or excuse ourselves for some reason, we hinder our ability to hear specific messages at times when we need them. It is as if practicing (like a grammar drill) obedience, acceptance, and surrender--just because we know that God's ways are best for us--sharpens and hones our ability to hear the message we need at a particular time for a particular situation.
The more I consider it, the more I think that Anna Mei is on to something. What if I were so tuned in to the realm of God's Kingdom, and it were so vivid, sharp and real to me--that the clamorous tinklling of what this world says is "normal" simply had no pizzazz or appeal? Hey, I think I like it!
Grace and peace!
