Turn Down The Volume

22 Sep

“Sometimes we think that we don’t hear God’s voice. Not because He isn’t speaking but because we have the volume of the world way too loud.”  ~ St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Life in our house when I was in high school was a bit rough for many reasons.  One of the major ones was because my father was extremely hard of hearing but would not acknowledge it.  It came to the point where, whenever he turned on the television to watch a show, my mother and I would go into the kitchen to play board games.

Dad would ask why were were walking out and leaving him by himself.  Mom would say because the volume was so loud she couldn’t take it.  Of course, at that response, my dad would get upset and say that the television was not loud at all and that there was nothing wrong with his hearing.  He would blame us for “ignoring” him and leaving him by himself.

I will never forget the day that he went into the living room with his new hearing aids and turned on the television.  It came on to the volume that he had always used.  His eyes nearly popped out of his head.  He asked if it was always that loud and we just looked at him and said, “Yes.  Why do you think we always left the living room when you turned the television on?”

Sometimes we are so bombarded by the noise of the world that we do not even realize how high the volume is set.  But the louder the world, the more we pay attention to it rather than to the Lord.  Others might tell us that we are too keyed in to the world and we look at them and reject the idea.  We say that we are not, that we could hear the Lord if He spoke to us, that He is silent, et cetera.  We are acting like my dad when he was losing his hearing and not accepting it.

It is tough to turn off the noise of the world, especially when we have allowed it to get louder  progressively.  However, if we are going to be able to follow the Lord, we need to get rid of the world’s noise and listen for the voice of God.  For Elijah, it was nothing more than a “tiny, whispering breeze”.  If we are turned in to the world, we might miss the voice of God.

FAITH ACTION:  Make some time for silent prayer today and try your best to hear the voice of God speaking to you.