10 June, Friday – The Voice

Friday of Week 10 in Ordinary Time

1 Kgs 19,11-16
Mt 5:27-32

….the sound of a gentle breeze.

Back in the day – the 70s & 80s – when a song came on the radio, I immediately knew who was singing. It could be the first time I heard that particular song or even a singer that I didn’t care for. I knew who was singing. I recognized the voice. I knew the voice. I knew the voice of people I didn’t know, would never meet. I especially remember March 7, 1985. Just as I was getting home from work, parking in front of the townhouse I was living in outside of Washington, D.C, I sat in my car to hear ‘the song’. We’d been waiting for the release of this song. This song that was played for the first time all over America (the world?) at the same time on virtually every radio station — ‘We are the World’. If only we could do as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan and Ray Charles and 21 others sang, “When the world must come together as one…..a change can only come when we stand together as one”. As the voices sang out, I remember crying at the words — the desire to help the world — calling out the singer by name (I was in my early 20s!). I knew the person singing by their voice. I called in and pledged my hard earned money for Africa as well. These voices mattered to me.

And as I read this well-known scripture, one of my favourites, God not being in the strong wind that broke in pieces the rocks or the earthquake that followed or the fire, I realized that Elijah stood there thru it all. He stood still until he heard the voice that mattered to him.

Only moving when he heard that still small voice. He KNEW that voice. 

To know the voice of God like Elijah. Like Mary. Like Jesus. God never distorts or disguises His voice. He wants us to hear Him. To heed His voice. He is guiding us with every word. His voice is the only voice that will never let us down, never leave us. His is the voice that beckons us to eternal life.

I desire to train my ears to ignore, to not even hear the constant noise of the world so that I will hear His voice.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)

Prayer: Lord God, help me to release all other voices. Speak so loudly that I know your voice above all voices.

Thanksgiving: Father God, thank you for speaking to me. Thank you for all the ways you allow me to hear your voice.