Deep inside of me there is a still small voice offering to guide me. The advice from the voice is trustworthy. It may caution me to not do something or on the other hand encourage me to take action. There have been times in the last few weeks I’ve listened to it. When I have, I’ve wound up either being a big encouragement to a friend at just the time they needed it or communicating an important message of clarity to coworkers at the agency I lead. Just this week I was nudged by the voice to take some food to a friend who was ill. Because I listened, my wife and I wound up being a major encouragement to her.
I’ve also put off the voice. When I put off the voice I find other types of outcomes. Sometimes it costs me some extra money (this year the voice told me to double check my taxes. I didn’t. I wound up filing an amended return). Sometimes I miss the blessing of lifting someone’s spirit.
The voice is persistent. It can speak to me about the same advice for a long time. I can avoid it or try to rationalize it. The voice though, is always speaking the truth.
Why do I avoid it? Often it’s because of the other messages in my head. Messages I’m generating myself. They rise up from various places inside of me. Messages of fear, insecurity, pride, or avoidance. These voices are not my friends. In fact, they never lead anywhere that is life-giving.
In my faith tradition, the voice and messages are easily explained. There is only one voice of truth. It’s a voice that embodies life at its fullest. It is the voice of the Creator. There are many other voices. They are voices that lead to anxiety, loss, and perpetual wanting. These voices are ultimately generated by darkness…life apart from one who created us.
The little voice of truth is present and available to all of us. The problem is, we are too used to being driven by the other dialogue in our head. For instance, many of us live lives guided by messages of insecurity that lead us to compare ourselves to others. We feel inadequate so we are led by voices telling us to avoid looking stupid, to fight to get ahead, or try to finish before someone else in order to take the lead. Many of these messages rise up out of painful memories, condemning messages from childhood, and our lack of practicing self-awareness. As a leader I am often too easily enamored with the worries of what could happen. The voices I hear are fueled by fear. I can become so full of their message I stop leading and start reacting, which always leads to poor decision making.
Most people who hear the still small voice of the Creator and who attend to it frequently would say that it takes discipline to quiet your mind and hear clearly. Disciplines that help hear the voice of the the Creator require you to slow down both mentally and physically. Often they are things such as journaling, meditation, reading, and prayer. These practices over time, can quiet your mind and create the internal climate that makes it easier to hear the Maker’s still small voice of truth.
Postscript:
Today was one of those days. By mid morning my mind was crowded with the voices of discouragement and dread. Challenges with team cohesiveness, keeping up with the daunting changes in our industry, Covid-19, and staff burnout all seemed too big and I seemed too small. I knew that though the challenges were real, my perspective was making them worse. I was settling in on problems rather than seeking solutions. I called a friend, a fellow agency director, to talk it through. Out of the blue, the Creator used them to give me a very encouraging message that someone else had given them about me. After that I recalled some of the ways God had spoken to me recently. Those two actions put me on more solid footing. We have to remember. The Creator doesn’t often give us the long term plan, rather, we are given just enough for the next step. And that is exactly what we need.