And My Sheep Hear my Voice

At church on Sunday I was reminded of a blog post that I wanted to write a couple of weeks ago, so here it is.

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went for a walk around our neighborhood. It just happened to be one of those nice weather days, and we wanted to get outside to enjoy it. As we got to our turnaround point, I kept having to call to Speed Racer to keep him from running into the road. He would hear my voice, but he was not really listening or following my guidance. Often, I would have to touch him and remind him to look at my face and then repeat what I had said to get him to listen. God brought these words to my mind:

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me."
John 10:14
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:27

I wondered to myself, "Why is it that he knows my voice, but he still does not listen and he still does not follow, even when he knows I will keep him safe."

With the Holy Spirit's prompting, I was reminded that so often we do the same thing to Him, even though we know His voice. We recognize it, but we fail to be still to see what He wants to say to us.

At church on Sunday, Pastor Calvin shared with us the story and video of the Joshua Bell experiment, which reiterated this same point. Oftentimes, we miss out on something God wants to say because we are too busy. The point Pastor Calvin made was that of the 1000+ people who heard this awesome violinist that morning for free, only 7 stopped to listen, and only one was really engaged in his performance, because she recognized him. One thing I noticed from the video is that after she stopped, more people also stopped and took note of the violinist. Granted, only 7 in all stopped at all, but when one really stopped, others wanted to listen too. I suspect the same could be said of us, when we stop and are still before the Lord. Our purpose will not be to draw people to Him, it will be to worship and to obey and be in relationship with Him, but in doing so, we will draw others to notice Him as well.

So be still and listen to the Good Shepherd's voice today.