“People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” (Isaiah 30:19-21)
I like these verses and their assurance of God’s guidance that they give me. But I wonder if they prompt in you, as I confess that they do for me, some measure of frustration or resentment as I think back to some moments in my past when the clear and audible voice of God telling me what to do or where to go would have been really helpful! I might have avoided some spectacular failures and mistakes.
One of my regular prayer partners, Nigel Heath, recently shared his thoughts with me about listening for ‘God-whispers’. Nigel is clearly far-better attuned to God than I am, because, to quote from the Elon Musk playbook, I suspect I’m more of the mindset that “when aiming for the moon and Mars, fail fast and learn fast.” After three spectacular explosions, Musk’s fourth Starship launch this week was a success. I guess that, like me, he’s someone who needs more of a shout than a whisper to get on the right way. But there’s not many of us can afford such spectacular failures or cope with them as he seems to. So, I think I’d better learn to listen for the ‘God-whispers.’
And I think I caught a ‘God-whisper’ that same day. On the very day Musk stopped blowing up his rockets the BBC news showed some of the final entries in this year’s Wildlife Photography awards. There was an interview with the photographer who took an image of a large group of Emperor Penguin chicks ready to take their first plunge into the ocean. They had taken a wrong turn and missed a gentle ice-slope down to the sea and were instead walking along the edge of a 50ft ice shelf. They’ll get there eventually of course. The photographer said that to get this shot of jeopardy he’d waited two months. He commented that “people often think that to get an image like that you need patience. But there are two other p’s,” he said, “that are just as important: passion and persistence”.
Did you hear that ‘God-whisper’ too? I’ve jotted those three p’s (patience, passion and persistence) in my notebook as a ready-made reminder on seeking guidance from God. Maybe one day I will also learn to hear God-whispers too and I won’t have to blow things up or miss the easy steps and have to jump off cliffs. With a little patience, passion and persistence I hope I can learn to hear a voice saying, ‘This is the way.’