VOICES WE NEED TO HEAR- A Series

There was a time if you heard voices you'd be considered crazy, touched-in-the-head, or at the least quirky. Now, if you are not hearing voices you are out-of-touch, uninformed, disconnected, and so twentieth-century. With our technologies reaching out and touching us with iphones, myphones, IMs, wireless networks, cable, satellite TV and radio, broadband, GPSs, and even old-fashioned cell phones with personalized ring tones, you could be hearing voices nearly 24-7. And if you're not, why not, what's wrong with you? Silence has become an enemy to be banished from your kingdom forever. Careful, silence may one of the sounds we need to hear. The good news is that you can keep in touch and be touched; the bad news is that you can keep in touch and be touched. With so many voices clamoring for your attention, how do you filter all the noise and voices? To whom do you choose to listen and let fill your heart and mind with their offerings? So many of the voices and noises promise to fill our lives in so many ways-to fill our garages, our closets, our pantries, our homes, our stomachs, our bank accounts, our young days, middle days, and our waning days. If there are so many voices trying to fill us up, why then are we so empty of heart and soul? Dr. William Hendricks once prayed before his seminary class, "...Father, forgive us for building men with the bodies of whales and the minds of minnows." Ouch! I suppose we need a good editor, a filter, to help us tune into to those voices that can fill us with the true manna of spiritual growth and service. So I will suggest a few voices we may need to hear more from in the days ahead. These voices may be hard to hear. Their volume is small but their impact can be magnificent. You won't like all the voices. I didn't say you needed to like all the voices I suggest. But I believe you may need to hear them. Hopefully, they will help us think, feel, and process differently. Maybe they will stretch us where we need stretching and sooth us where we need soothing. Hopefully, we can learn to hear differently and listen in places we never thought we might hear the truth we need to hear. And I pray that even in the times of silence, we will not fear the silence but learn to discern the still small voice of the One who still beckons us to come; to come to His side and live in His kingdom. So listen, listen, listen....