Recognizing His Voice
by Pam Richards Watts
Recognizing His Voice
By Pam Richards Watts
As one old enough to remember life before computers, I am still
astonished by the wonder of modern technology that is email. When I
was growing up, such a thing would have seemed fantastic, a creation
of science fiction. Today, sitting at the computer and preparing to
hit “Send,” I marvel at the innovation that has become such a routine
aspect of everyday life. For someone who loves to talk as much as I
do, I’m thrilled by this advance in communication. At last, limitless
conversation!
Through email I can totally indulge my love of language, editing
messages until they are just right. (If only I could install “edit”
and “delete” buttons on my mouth!) Email is also wonderfully
accommodating to a busy schedule. While I would consider it the height
of bad manners to call a friend after 10:00 pm just to chat, online I
can correspond at any hour of the day or night.
I have found email to be a great way to connect with my dear
friend Holly. Our relationship began with a thirty-minute phone call,
and our dialogue hasn’t slowed down since. Unfortunately, shared
responsibilities of work, home and six kids between us make it
difficult to find time to start a conversation, let alone finish one.
Thanks to email, though, conversations take place without limits or
disturbances. Whether Holly is five miles down the road or five
hundred miles away, we have many satisfying “e-chats” in our future.
Our friendship has been reinforced by our many emails. Some of the
most rewarding conversations I’ve ever had with Holly take place this
way, and some of the most satisfying emails I receive come from her.
I’m very familiar with Holly’s personal writing style, one that is as
distinctive as she is. Her bubbly personality is mirrored in the cute
emoticons sprinkled throughout her messages, while text abbreviations
like LOL reflect her splendid sense of humor. Subject matter, style,
tone or even the occasional misspelled word all characterize these
messages as patently “Holly.”
Through such communication, I have come to know Holly well, and since
I know her well, I can identify her correspondence. Even without her
name in the address line, I could recognize her emails easily.
I’m thankful I can use email without understanding how it works.
Otherwise, I’d be in big trouble. I’m the last one who should ever
answer technical questions about email. At best, I could point out
what to click on in order to send, forward or delete. Fortunately, my
hopeless ignorance doesn’t prevent me from reading or sending it.
I am equally at a loss trying to explain how it is that God
communicates. Such a mystery escapes my understanding even more than
the most advanced computer technology. To begin with, it is totally
beyond me to authenticate the Bible. I’m no biblical scholar. I can’t
say how so many authors living hundreds of years apart created a work
of literature that declares itself the Living Word of God. Oh, sure,
I’ve opened it enough times that I can locate certain key passages. I
know the difference between the Old and New Testament. I‘ve even
committed a few verses to memory. However, my familiarity with it
doesn’t qualify me to answer questions about it.
Fortunately, I don’t have to hold a degree in hermeneutics to hear God
when He speaks to me through scripture. When a familiar verse suddenly
jumps off the page, I recognize His voice. I can’t rationalize the way
He speaks to me through prayer, either, but I know when it happens.
Private reflections are interrupted unexpectedly by a startling and
original concept, and I recognize such wisdom as His voice. Still, how
does one substantiate such a claim? I’m not equipped to give a
satisfactorily plausible explanation.
Once upon a time, I would have thought that “hearing from God”
this way was far-fetched, like so much religious fiction. Today I
marvel at my former skepticism as here I sit, transformed through
countless conversations. Such contact has become a fundamental part of
my daily life—and every time it happens I am still astonished and
humbled.
It is through such communication that I have come to know God, and
since I have gotten to know Him, I know when He is speaking to me. I’m
able to hear from Him without understanding how He does it. Whether He
reaches me through a sermon, or prayer or a devotional I read in an
email, I can always recognize His voice.
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John
10:27, NIV).
I’m able to recognize His voice when He speaks to me through the
Bible without having the foggiest notion about how the writings of
multiple people living hundreds of years apart came to be the true and
living Word of God. You wouldn’t want to ask me how to explain such a
thing. But any attempt on my part to explain “Bible technology” would
leave anyone more confused than before. My accounting of it would at
best be unsatisfactory and bewildering, and at worst would leave me
looking like a babbling idiot.
We’ve had ourselves some pretty powerful talks through prayer,
Scripture and sermons. However eloquent I can be, in the end all I can
really say about email is how much I enjoy it, what I find meaningful
about it, or how I have benefited from it. But I’ll never be able to
tell you how it works
Sometimes it comes through rereading a familiar verse that seems to
jump off the page; other times it is a startling concept that
interrupts my private thoughts. I’m so very thankful I don’t have
to be a “communications expert” in order to have access to the
ultimate in communication.
|