You’re sitting in a darkened theater enjoying a concert, a play, or a
film, when suddenly a smartphone screen lights up as a person reads an incoming
text and perhaps takes time to reply. In his book The Shallows: What
the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr says that in our
connected world, “The sense that there might be a message out there for us” is
increasingly difficult to resist.
Samuel was a young boy when he heard a voice call his name and thought
it was Eli the priest in the tabernacle where he served the Lord (1 Sam.
3:1-7). When Eli realized that God was calling Samuel, he told the boy how to
respond. When God called his name a fourth time, “Samuel answered, ‘Speak, for
Your servant hears’” (v.10). This attentiveness to God’s voice became the
pattern of Samuel’s life as “the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by
the word of the Lord” (v.21).
Are we listening for God’s voice in our lives today? Are we more drawn
by the vibration of a smartphone than the still, small voice of the Lord
through His Word and His Spirit?
May we, like Samuel, learn to discern God’s voice and say, “Speak, Lord.
I’m listening.”
Don’t let the noise of the world keep you from hearing the voice of God. (RBC)
