“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” John 10:27
When I re-read what I’ve written, self-conscious thoughts come easy. I hear voices. Sometimes they really bug me.
As I’m quickly catching up to the age where I’m considered a part of “the old guy’s club”, I find I’m a little short of the wisdom that “old guys” are supposed to have. Not opinion. Wisdom. Huge difference. We are flooded with opinions. Formed by our various personality settings, our opinions on situations or things are vastly different. The personality setting is a combination of our core values, our experiences of the past, our temperament, as well as our embedded fears or beliefs. These, and many other factors, have a huge effect on how we respond to “voices”.
My wife is an artist. She also has strong phlegmatic tendencies. She loves a nice hike, and loses herself in detail. She is strong and tough, but has zero athletic interests. Some years ago, the two of us were in the Yukon Territory on vacation. Up on the Canol Road in late fall. Arriving at the road’s access point, a notice warned us that there were no maintenance crews working and that anyone travelling its length did so at their own risk. My adrenaline surged. This was good! Lucille was in her glory. Fall colours were screaming.
We came upon a mountain lake. It was deep. The water was cold. The depth of the waters. The grey rocky surfaces. The aspens, yellow and red, framing stunted coniferous forest. The glorious colour. This was the Arctic at its finest. We carried with us a two-person kayak. It seemed the idyllic situation for a paddle. Lucille in the bow. I at the stern. Out onto the water. I had to remind Lucille to paddle. Her paddle hardly found the water. She was drinking in the opulence of God’s creation. In her mind she was cataloguing a scene she would never forget!
Obviously, I was in charge of the craft. I noticed a weather change. The water was beginning to froth a little. The calm was changing. A gorgeous setting was quickly being transformed. We were soon – very soon – going to be dealing with whitecapped waters. I didn’t want to frighten Lucille. The atmosphere change was giving her further pleasure, through an artist’s eyes. I was scanning the same scene, but through the eyes of the captain of a ship.
I urged her to paddle. We needed to get to shore. Soon. Then it happened. The rudder cable snapped. I now needed my bow rider’s full participation. We were in danger. The design of the boat relied heavily on the rudder. The rudder was to keep us on track. There was a high-intensity short course given by the captain to the artist! Explaining she must use strong strokes on the left to compensate the lack of a functioning rudder. We paddled. We prayed. The rocky shore looked like the most welcoming friend!
Voices. Sometimes soft and sometimes urgent.
To me the cloud change was a voice that prompted attention, caution. As the leader of our little expedition, I was in charge of our safety. The water was much too cold, the location too desolate. There was no plausible chance of rescue if we got into trouble. So, the voice in my mind sounded urgent. When the rudder cable snapped, it became an impending disaster.
Lucille, on the other hand, enjoyed the cloud bank moving across the mountain. The change of the shadows on the lake. The voices speaking to her were almost meditative. Absorbing. She was on this lake, on a kayak, with a guide she knew, who had her best in mind.
Even so in life. We sometimes are within the same parameters as our near ones. We see the same scene. We hear different voices.
Jesus says “my sheep hear my voice.”
There are many of us who have inherited personalities that could be likened to a smoke- belching, aftercooled turbo-charged diesel power wagon. The concept of being a sheep hearing the shepherd’s voice holds no appeal. Others are relaxed, artistic, self-absorbed, often with stable thought processes. They are methodical thinkers. Not frightened easily. Neither are they very impressed by voices. They prefer to come to their own conclusions. Then another personality type is bubbly and warm. Friendly to all. Hears a voice. Follows the thought. But soon another voice calls. This personality thinks of themself as a friend to all. And to be a friend to all there isn’t enough time to “hear” one friend’s voice. They have things to do. And people to see. Maybe tomorrow. Many, many people have countless reasons not to listen for Jesus’ voice.
Sometimes we hear of an individual who, in the crisis of their life, breathes out, or even screams out, “If there is a God…Help me. Help me now!” This is a voice. It’s a good voice. It’s our own voice. Sometimes a voice of frantic fear. Sometimes despair. Many times, anger. Perhaps with the question whether there is a God.
My dear friends, I too have been there! I couldn’t sustain relationships with employers. I couldn’t remain content in our marriage. Alcohol had me out of control. Suicide seemed an option. I asked myself, “What would it be like to be dead?” My soul cried out. I screamed for help. No one heard. I was alone. I had lots of “fair weather” friends. Then, after a while, I became virtually reclusive. The friends which I had, disappointed me. Why? I was hearing a voice. I didn’t recognize the voice. Sometimes people are stopped in their tracks. Sometimes the voice is loud. When Saul, on the Damascus Road, was struck by light brighter than the sun, he heard an audible voice. (Read Acts chapter 9 verses 1 through 19.) “My” voice came quietly. Learning to hear the voice still comes slow to me.
This blog is written as much for my sake as for the readers. I’m not preaching to anyone. When we hear Jesus’ voice it doesn’t matter who brings it. Or if it’s a quiet impression that starts in our heart as a little plant, and slowly, so slowly, becomes a strong seed. Hearing the voice, actually hearing it, is not boring. It’s not complicated. It’s not a religious organization giving directives. It is the voice of Jesus, God’s only Son.
“Today if ye…hear his voice, harden not your heart.” from Acts 3:15 Hardening your heart means that you can’t allow yourself to believe. When we can’t allow ourselves to believe we just need to admit that to Jesus. Jesus came to save sinners.
Isaiah 35:8 “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
