Can You Hear Me Now?

Wisdom of a shepherd part 2

“Imagine the grief of a passionate God who longs to be Father, Friend and Lover to a people who thinks God is so distant that what they are hearing is the figment of their imagination”

          God speaking to us; is it one of those mystical things only reserved to the initiated or can everybody hear Him? The reality is most of us think we hear God only on special occasions or when we are in desperate situations. There is an underlying idea that God is frugal about His words, that He only speaks to us when He absolutely has to. This idea is reenforced by a seemingly mute God who is more interested in responding to right religious rituals rather than helping us with our daily mundane lives. Add to that the countless religious teachings about a distant God demanding that we come to Him for dialogue and you have a toxic image of a god busy sending earthquakes and  hurricanes to judge people.

But is it so? Is God so bothered by our humanity that talking to us like a friend talks to a friend is a task too great for Him? Or have we been influenced by the idea of a God too holy to care for our lives that we justify our broken dialogue?

The beautiful truth is that God is much more loquacious than we give Him credit for. In fact, John tells us that God is our shepherd, not the kind that sits around all day bothered by the bleating animals. No, God is part of the rare, the good kind of shepherds.

“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” John 10:2-5 ESV

          There, in this simple story, Jesus destroys every myth and doctrine of separation. The Lord is making a point that He has a voice and He uses it. Note that He didn’t say, “my prophets hear my voice” or “my leaders hear my voice”. What Jesus emphatically says is “my sheep hear my voice”

What is missing from our modern point of view is that being a shepherd isn’t an occupation you pick for the summer. To be a shepherd in the Ancient Near East was not a job like any other, rather it was a lifestyle. Those choosing to raise sheep dedicated their lives for the flock, which meant spending time away from society for long periods of time. Their only interaction was with animals in the field day and night. Shepherds provided care and safety for the flock, and at night they slept next to the sheep to make sure they were protected against predators (I will address that in more details in another post).

Sheep, unlike other animals cannot survive on their own, they are utterly dependent on the shepherd for everything.  The importance of hearing the shepherd’s voice is a matter of life and death to them. But as most of us know, sheep are pretty dumb animals. They aren’t proactive in building strong listening skills. They have more important things to do like grazing fresh tender shoots of grass, and meandering around. The responsibility of communication, and becoming familiar with the shepherd’s voice  rests solely on him.

It was quite normal for a shepherd to give a personal, peculiar pet name for each of his sheep. He even had a special way he would use to speak to each of his lambs from the time they were born, effectively allowing them to know his voice for themselves.

Sheep were notorious for getting lost and the only way a sheep would find the way home was to hear the familiar sound of the shepherd’s voice calling out. For a sheep it was like the lighthouse on a stormy night. It meant safety and direction. It was imperative that the shepherd imprinted his voice to his sheep, and there is no better way to do that than to sing. Yes, that’s right! Shepherds would hum songs while leading them throughout the day. Each intonation acted as a well worn path in the field, leaving a indelible mark in their mind. And this was not a one time event. Remember, sheep are pretty dumb, and as such continuing to speak to them was not only necessary, it was part of the ongoing relationship the shepherd had with his sheep. We could say that the shepherd loved his sheep.

Jesus, like the shepherd, talks to us every day, every night. His voice is continually speaking words of encouragement and love. As much as we have been told that the burden of relationship rests on us, the truth is quite the opposite. God wants to be so relational with us that day after day He speaks His lovingkindness to us even when we ignore Him. The Scriptures even tell us that He sings over us.

“For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zeph 3:17

          That distant god is not the image of the love and passion of a father, a friend or a love, and especially not of a shepherd. None of us would go a whole day without talking to our children. How much more is the Good Shepherd eager to speak to his own. The Lord is constantly wooing us with his voice like a shepherd would with his sheep. Because we do not truly believe that Jesus talks to us that often, or that He is that into us, we have developed a hearing problem.

If all of us would settle our hearts with the fact that Jesus talks to us all the time, then we would start paying more attention to His voice. Let us be convinced that God is emphatically more personal than we care to imagine. Just look for a moment at parents who have deaf children. Do you think they aren’t making every effort to communicate to their children? In fact, they go through different ways to make sure their children understand them, even to the point of learning sign language for their children’s sake. In the same token, God has been using multiple ways to communicate with us as we have been hard of hearing. Rest assured that He will find a way to make His voice known to us despite the many filters we have layered over our understanding.