Getting calls, being silent

Information these days moves at exactly whatever speed we want it to.  If you want blazing fast information, it will be at your fingertips in seconds. If you want to read a newspaper, or savor a novel, you can do that too.  But it's not just that information moves faster these days, but rather that it is all the more invasive. We are persistently engaged constantly, even when we'd rather not be.  Our attention is pulled in a thousand ways every moment of every day.  You always have something

beeping demanding your attention.  There is a hefty amount of intrustion into our lives, and we can't seem to shake it.  And the sad thing is, that we invite it in.  We welcome all this intrusion, heck, we cause it.  Every beep that happens is because at some point, we consciously invited it in. And what does this all do to us and for us?  Well, to make a long story short, it erodes and corrodes our ability to concentrate on and process this information. In a world of essentially ceaseless noise, of distractions in every which way, even though we have access to all the world's information, it comes in a miasma of distractions, always.

And that leads us to the calls that God gives in the Bible.  For on Sunday, we got to look in on the call that God gave to Samuel, whom the Bible tells us, did not know God at that time.  And when Samuel hears the call of God, he doesn't know who it is who is calling him, and so he goes and asks of Eli why he was calling him.  Eli responds by saying that he had not called Samuel, and that Samuel ought to go back and lie down.

Samuel does, but the calls just keep on coming.  So eventually, Eli clues into the fact that it's God calling Samuel and not Eli himself, so he  tells Samuel to go back, lie down, and when he hears that voice again, to respond by saying 'speak Lord, your servant is listening.'

Your servant is listening.  That's good for Samuel, but how is it for us?  Are we listening?  We probably aren't.  Psalm 46 has a very famous line in it that says 'be still, and know that I am God,' which is a wonderful saying, but it is something that we get less and less good at over time.  As time drags on, we tend to fill the space up rather than allowing it to empty out.  Silence is something that we feel needs to be eliminated at all times.  As soon as something is quiet, we rush to fill that void with sound and pictures.  Silence is an enemy to be defeated at all costs.  We don't want dead space, we don't want dead air.

Do we take any time to be still, and know that God is God? Do we take any time to know who God is and what he is all about?  Do we take time to listen?  Usually not.  More often than not, we proceed as though we knew what God had already said on the subject, and we're usually wrong.  I know it's a tired trope, but you know of the stories of national and international conflicts, in which both sides feel as though God is on their sides, that he would back them up and support them 100%, and they want that to be true.  And we all say that God couldn't possibly support them both, right?

We all know that, and yet we continue to fight with those who are around us, and sincerely believe that God is on our side, while the other person believes likewise about themselves.  We all believe that God would and does support us and back us 100% in our struggles, in our endeavors, without stopping to consider the alternative. What if he doesn't?  What if God doesn't support us, what if he might, in fact, disagree with what we're doing?

Be still, and know that I am God.  Take the time to listen.  It's funny, really, because what tends to set the great heroes of the scriptures apart is their ability to listen to what is said, and to react accordingly.  They aren't better people than anyone else, they aren't smarter or stronger or holier or anything like that, instead, they listen, in a way that most of us don't.

Be still, and know that I am God.  What does that mean? It means let God speak, and

hear what he has to say.  Don't skim the scriptures, engage with them.  Let God's word disagree with you, because it will.  If you read through the entire scriptures, and never find yourself disagreeing with it once, then either our Lord has returned and is reading this blog (unlikely), or you aren't letting God speak.  You're speaking for him.  Let him speak.  Let his word be spoken and heard, and take it for what it is. Don't try to drown it out, don't try to pretend he doesn't say what he says, take it for what it is, engage with it, and deal with it as it is. Yes, you won't like it, but here's where Grace comes in.

For you see, as Christians, you have to let God speak, and  hear him for what he says.  But he doesn't just speak words of Law, he speaks words of Gospel, too.  He speaks forgiveness, life and salvation.  And that's the core of what we as Christians need to deal with.  For we're not going to like a lot of what we hear from Jesus.  We aren't going to like or appreciate much of what we hear from the Scriptures, and the question is do we rush to fill that space up with sound, or do we let it be heard.  I know it's our temptation to plug our ears, or to pretend that God didn't say what he plainly says, or to feel as though God could not possibly say what he has already put out there. We want to believe that God doesn't diagree with us, and when he does, we seek to shut him out. But that's not what God is all about. Be still, and know that I am God.  Let him speak his words of law, and where they convict you, repent of them.  Repent, and turn your mind to other things.  Turn your mind to the grace that he offers at the cross.

Knowing your inability to follow the law, knowing your inability to do what God's word says you ought to do, your only choice would be to either toss the law out, or to pretend it's not there, or to try to move on past that and imagine that it doesn't apply, but it does apply.  The law applies to you. The stuff you'd rather not deal with because you're in conflict with it, that applies to you.  The whole thing applies to you.  The only question is, what do you do with the parts you don't like? You don't have to toss them out, but you do have to rely on God's grace.  Be still, and know that God is God.  Let his law speak, and let his Gospel speak too.  Let his words of disagreement with you be heard, but let his words of forgiveness and grace be heard too.  It is only this that gives us any confidence in the face of law that we dislike and disagree with.  It's only this that lets us hear the law without rejecting it, knowing that we are far short of it.  God's law is good, we are bad at keeping it.  That's why Jesus fulfills it.  IF you're still, if you listen, you'll hear all of that.  It's a matter being still, and knowing that God is God.