God is calling -- are you listening?

Ramblings from the Rector

With you is wisdom, she who knows your works and was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your sight and what is right according to your commandments. Send her forth from the holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory send her, that she may labor at my side, and that I may learn what is pleasing to you. For she knows and understands all things, and she will guide me wisely in my actions and guard me with her glory. (Wisdom 9:9-11 NRSV)

Do you remember when you were a child?  When you prayed for something and expected for it to happen?  I do.  Sometime between then and now, unfortunately, I grew up.  I came to understand that my prayers would not always be answered, or at least that’s how I saw it.  I started to look for my answers in other places.  When I first felt the call to the priesthood, I tried to look for answers in other places.  I searched online and read other accounts of their own calls.  I talked to friends who are priest (including a retired bishop) and asked them what to do.  They all sent me in the same direction – a direction that I had pretty much given up with my childhood.  – Listen to God!  This was something that I didn’t know how to do.  I understood how to pray, to give my thoughts and concerns to God, but I didn’t know how to listen for the response.  I mean, God talked to people in the old days but that time is past.  God works differently now.  God works only through mystery, not direct communication. – Wrong!!! – God still calls us.  Most of us have just forgotten how to pick up the phone!  I had forgotten how to listen.  Of all the things that I had to learn from the moment I felt God’s call to the end of my schooling at Vancouver School of Theology, this was the hardest, and at the same time the most simple.  Hearing God talking to you doesn’t take any special practice.  You don’t have to meditate or pray for long periods of time.  You don’t have to fast or cleanse yourself in any special way.  Although these things and many others help some people.  All you have to do is have faith.  Such a simple thing and yet so difficult.  You have to truly believe that God may be speaking to you at any moment.  You have to be ready to drop everything and listen.  And here’s the hardest part, you have to recognise God’s voice.  There is no easy way to tell you how to recognise God’s voice.  Everyone hears it in their own way.  I often hear it through nature, through the movement of leaves on a tree, the snow blowing across the road, the waves crashing on the shore.  The best advice I can give you about how to recognise god’s voice is to listen to the words of Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”  If you think you hear God’s voice, find a quiet place within and listen.  You will know God in your heart.