Listen Up: The Divine Megaphone

I wrote this piece last week, intending to place it within the context of our church's newsletter, of which I am the editor. However, I received more submissions than anticipated, which left no room for my article. That's all right -- that's a good thing! Yet instead of wasting this -- which has weighed heavily on my heart -- I thought I'd post my musings here ...

I am struggling to believe that it's the New Year already. The end of 2008. I find myself in a strange place, a somewhat melancholy place. Most folks wax poetic this time of year, thinking back on the year just tucked into bed forever, and idealizing the new year stretching ahead, full of bright hopes and delicious promises. Usually, anyway. I guess I'm not "most folks" anymore. Am I thrilled that a new year is ahead of me? Not really, for there are no promises ... right?

I don’t bother to make New Year’s resolutions anymore. In fact, I guess it’s automatically set up in my stubborn Irish DNA that I am most likely to do exactly the opposite of what I resolve to do. I am living proof of the Apostle Paul’s admonishment in Romans, “I do not do the things that I should do, and I do the things that I should not do” [my paraphrase]. For a few years I tried, believing that's just what you did at this time of year, but I quickly realized how futile – and silly – the whole endeavor really was. At least for me. It always boiled down to two things: lose weight and stop biting my nails. My nails are ironically (and miraculously?) growing, yet my cynicism dictates that they won’t last for long. And I am multiple pounds heavier per child I have born. Enough said. No resolutions.

So ... here we are. 2008 has sighed its last breaths, ready for eternal slumber. And yet ... I have to be honest with myself. If 2008 never happened (indeed, or 2007 or 2006 or 2005, for that matter), in a sort of George Bailey “It’s a Wonderful Life” fashion, I would also have missed out on some tremendous blessings. New friends would not be a part of my life. My kids are extraordinarily happy. Grandma and Grandpa are a part of our daily lives. Cousins are close by. We are part of a beautiful, healthy church (trust me – don’t take that for granted!). We might never have experienced God in the way that we have. Yes, George Bailey, it is a pretty wonderful life after all. And yet, sometimes my fallen humanity kicks in and somehow I end up blinded to the blessings and blanketed in uncertain fear.

Over the past few years, I have learned how to listen to God’s voice. Sometimes, in all honesty, I don’t hear anything at all, no matter how calloused my kneeling knees have become. Yet other times I’ll feel a subtle, gentle nudge; or a rumbling outside of myself; or in cases where I am prone toward deafness, God then pulls out the big guns: the Divine Megaphone. With the turning of the calendar page, now just a few small steps into 2009, the Megaphone is out and the message is clear: Trust Me! I've heard this in sermons, in songs, in writings. And for Christmas, I received a beautiful (and much-needed) devotional called Moments with the Savior by Ken Gire, outlining the life of Christ with each entry. As I settled down to read the first chapter, God blasted the Megaphone in the form of the author's prayer: “Thank you for the autumns in my life that have humbled me with their losses. For the winters that have strengthened me with their cold.” Do I feel thankful for those moments? Those moments when trusting seems so hard to do? Not often … not without complaint …

So here we are, on the cusp of another new year – one that, for many of us, might seem bleak. Indeed, this lesson – this mandate – to trust God in, and in spite of, everything applies to every one of us, whether times are good or bad. Especially the bad. Our suffering economy has come knocking on the door of many, many people, paying an unwelcome and perhaps unexpected visit. And this is when God pulls out his Divine Megaphone:

Trust Me!

Is it easy? No, it’s not. Our fallenness has pre-wired us to balk at that. We are sinfully inclined to ignore the blessings and zero in on the scary stuff. Trust in … God? Really trust in God? Does God drive to the bank to cash in that slashed paycheck? Does God hold the checkbook with quaking hands? Does God work out that budget and cringe when the expenses outweigh the income? Trust in … God?

Yes.

I believe that God is making Himself loud and clear, for all of us. He is bigger than our new president. He is bigger than our hurting economy. He is bigger than jobs kept or lost, than health or illness, than our perceived and faulty sense of control and uncertainty. Trust Me! Is it easy? No – at least not for me. But the Divine Megaphone is blaring and the Holy Spirit is hard at work, keeping our ears and our hearts open.

Trust Me!

I won’t call this a New Year’s Resolution – otherwise I’ll probably once again do the exact opposite of what I should do.

But I have to listen.