There are many voices that I hear on a regular basis. Each of them has something different to say, and each of them seeks to gain my ear and to tell me who I am and what I am worth.
There is the voice of the district licensing board, which tries to convince me that I have no place of service in God's church.
There is the voice of the family member I spoke to recently who told me that, in light of recent events, that I should rethink my entire educational and career path.
There are the voices of my wife and kids telling me that I am loved and that I have value.
And so it goes - voice after voice vying for my attention and competing for my acceptance. Even my own voice gets into the act, going back and forth between the extremes - agreeing with the voices that tear me down one moment and telling me I am loved the next.
For so long I have believed that my job is to learn to listen to the positive voices and to ignore the negative voices, and thus to remain "healthy." Now I am coming to believe something different.
My job is not simply to ignore the negative voices but to ignore all the voices save the voice of the One, the voice of God. God doesn't tell me anything other than that I am God's beloved. That is the voice I need to hear and to pay attention to. It is the voice that will never lie to me - it will never tell me I am worthless and it will never tell me I am perfect.
It is only when I give absolute priority to the voice of God that I can truly hear and discern the other voices that surround me.
This is a challenging task, as the myriad other voices often clamor for attention and may seem to shout down any hope of hearing the quiet voice of God. But God's voice is persistent and I know that if I listen long enough, I will hear it.
Even now.
jB
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