The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 1 Samuel 3: 10-12
Today I was thinking about those tin cans we used to tie together and make telephones out of! Do you remember? I remember how great we thought those were. But there was a problem, I guess a major problem with our tin can communications.
Clarity and reach, you see, to effectively communicate you have to have a transmitter and a receiver and both of those need to send or receive clear signals. Our tin cans were limited and at times, especially over great lengths you could not quite understand the transmission. Length was a problem and today it would be hard to find real tin cans in a world of aluminum.
Many times, the call that we receive from God is unclear as well. Perhaps it is the distance that we place ourselves from God, or maybe just maybe we are listening with the wrong organ. Perhaps when listening to God we should use our hearts instead of our ears. Many times, the call is not necessarily the message as much as what we feel. Many times in our lives, we think we understand the person who is trying to send us a message, perhaps their words have nothing to do with the reality they are trying to convey to us! It seems we use many ways to communicate, our body language our actions most times those speak louder than words. Many times, our hearing is skewed by what we already think about the situation.
It is amazing how we live in the age of communication, cell phones have signals everywhere, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, websites, newspapers, pagers, television, live streams, YouTube — it all seems to go on forever. Once you figure out how to use something like this, there always seems to be a newer, better faster way to communicate. All this and still I think our levels of understanding each other are lower than ever. It seems we have forgotten how to talk! Hmm... Perhaps the problem lies more in the receiver than the transmitter!
May you hear the voice of the Christ in the voices of those around you! And may your sense of hearing extend to your mind and hearts!
Hello, Hello … Can you hear me now?
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Lance Smith is pastor at Zwingli United Church of Christ in Monticello.
