Still Small Voice of Love

Luke 1:18

Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I'm an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”

Beloved: I fear my feelings. It’s easier to be busy and ignore them. But You won’t let me do that. I’m angry that I’m in pain, angry that I’m not able to do what I want to do, afraid all this won’t get fixed, and ashamed of my weakness.

Lover: I see your impatience. You want to take what you know and run back into the fray, where your relationship with Me will slip away into the background. No, you need to stay in the weakness a bit longer to really learn the lesson of trust and love. Endure.

²⁶Brothers and sisters, look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose what the world thinks is unimportant and what the world looks down on and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks is important. ²⁹God did this so that no one can brag in his presence. ³⁰Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God, and have been made holy, and have been set free from sin. ³¹So, as the Scripture says, “If someone wants to brag, he should brag only about the Lord.”

(1 Corinthians 1: 26-31, NCV)

“Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, ‘Prove that you are a good person.’ Another voice says, ‘You'd better be ashamed of yourself.’ There also is a voice that says, ‘Nobody really cares about you,’ and one that says, ‘Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.’ But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.’ That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us ‘my Beloved’." —Henri Nouwen¹⁹