Speak up!

The other night I went to dinner with a group of friends, an outing that was long overdue. We went to a fairly new restaurant that was very nice and had delicious food, but it was packed! It felt as though everyone and their mom had decided to come out at that moment for dinner, which was rather inconvenient for us. It was so loud we had to practically shout across the table to be heard by others. I couldn’t hear half of what was said, so I spent much of the night smiling and nodding, hoping this was an appropriate reaction to what was being said.

I wonder how often our spiritual lives look like my dinner with my friends. How many times do we want to have a conversation with the Lord but his voice is drowned out by the sea of voices and distractions in our world?

How can you know what God is saying if you don’t leave space in your schedule to hear him?

This is the jist of what I felt the Lord was saying to me this morning. I realized I’ve been needing to wait and hear the Lord speak on a number of things but I haven’t actually been giving him the room to do so. It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that he’ll be able to speak to my life and give me direction if I’m not available to receive.

What do you do when you can’t hear what’s being said?

You make adjustments. If I’m having an important conversation with someone and I simply can’t hear what they’re saying I’ll move closer or be more intentional to focus my attention on them. If they can’t hear me and they tell me, I’ll speak louder to ensure that I am heard. I can change the way I’m speaking to give the listener the best chance to understand my message. If it’s too crowded and busy we’ll move tables or locations in favor of somewhere quieter.

We don’t settle for distance in our physical relationships and conversations, so why do we do this spiritually? I don’t want to continue to settle in my communication with God, but this requires work and a change in pace, a change in schedule, but one that will be well worth the effort.

God is able and willing to speak to you, the question is: are you in a position to hear him?