Good morning…
God’s voice whispers all over our everyday lives, yet each of us sometimes wonder, “How do I know when I am actually hearing from God?” One creative answer to this deeply important question comes to us in the spoken word of a powerful poet.
“Great poem from Amena Brown!” wrote a friend from our Sunday afternoon group. “Some of you probably already know of her – she lives here in Atlanta. Sending both the spoken version and written – I love to have both. Enjoy!”
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I’m Here, I’m Listening by Amena Brown
She said, “How do you know when you are hearing from God?”
I didn’t know how to explain …
My words never felt so small, so useless, so incapable
I wanted to say
Put your hand in the middle of your chest
Feel the rhythm there
I wanted to say you will find the holy text in so many places
On crinkly pages of scripture
In dusty hymnals
In the creases of a grandmother’s smile …
God’s ears are here for the babies
For the immigrant, for the refugee
For the depressed, for the lonely
For the dreamers
The widow, the orphan
The oppressed and the helpless
Those about to make a mess or caught in the middle of cleaning one up
Dirt don’t scare God’s ears
God is a gardener
God knows things can’t grow without sun, rain, and soil …
I want to tell her God is always waiting
Lingering after the doors close
And the phone doesn’t ring
And we are finally alone
God is always saying
I love you
I am here
Don’t go, stay
Please
I try to explain how God is pleading with us
To trust
To love
To listen
That God’s voice is melody and bass lines and whisper and thunder and grace
Sometimes when I pray, I think of her
How the voice of God was lingering in her very question
How so many of us just like her
Just like me
Just like you
Are still searching
Still questioning, still doubting
I know I don’t have all the answers
I know I never will
That sometimes the best thing we can do is put our hands in the middle of our chest
Feel the rhythm there
Turn down the noise in our minds, in our lives
And whisper,
God
Whatever you want to say
I’m here
I’m listening
Reference: Amena Brown, “She said, ‘How do you know when you are hearing from God?’,” in A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal, ed. Sarah Bessey (New York: Convergent Books, 2020), 7, 8, 9, 10–11.
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I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people (Psalm 85:6a, NLT).
