My feelings speak very loudly!

Long ago, at different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. But in these last days, it has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made. (Hebrews 1:1-2 VOICE)

You listening? Do you hear him speaking? Is there a tug at your heart unlike any other? Can you see evidence of his words deeply affecting who you are and the choices you make? If the answer to these is yes, you are doing well, but if it is "not really" or "uh uh", then maybe it is time to just stop to consider which voices you are listening to!

I find that the loudest voice I hear at times is not his, but mine! I am whining, just downright complaining about something not going my way, or I am disappointed because I didn't get something I thought I wanted or deserved. Have you ever noticed just how loud the voice of complaint can be? In fact, I'd have to say it is the loudest voice around me, but it shouldn't be the loudest coming from me!

I guess we might register our complaints at such a loud pitch because we think we aren't being heard, or because the frustration behind those complaints is so deeply felt that we cannot help but get a little worked up about what is at the root of them. The truth of the matter is that God is speaking, but as long as we are complaining, his voice is likely going to be the one we don't hear as clearly!

God's voice tends to be "quiet" or "still" - isn't that what scripture declares? Yet, his voice holds the very universe together, creates all that exists, and can produce overwhelming peace in one or two quiet words. Didn't he look into the fearful storm that made the disciples who were a rockin' and rollin' in the ship one night and simply tell it to "be still"? God's voice may simply be hard for us to hear because we focus so much on the storm and so little on the simplicity of God's solution to the storm!

We are drawn to the storm - we even help create some additional chaos in the midst of the storm - lending our own sense of "storming" into the mix. Why? Our feelings are easily escalated. We find ourselves "giving into" those feelings of fear, mistrust, anger, frustration, or disappointment because feelings demand some sort of action - they are hard to ignore!

Instead of focusing on the storm, we might do well to settle our emotions, looking instead to hear not the winds and the waves, but the soft steps of one walking on the water! When feelings give way to escalated emotion, we aren't going to be listening for a "still small voice", nor are we going to think the solution may be as "simple" as Jesus telling the storm to "be still". Just sayin!