When God Talks

It is the wee hours of the morning. The house is quiet and silent, and I am the only one awake. It is a time unfettered with schedules and the busy-ness of ToDo lists. I might have liked to sleep in a bit longer, but God called; so I am ready for God to reveal to me why he woke me up.  When He first began to awaken me early, I heard him clearly say, “Get up. I have something for you.” And when I did, there was always some gem or nugget that He wanted me to know. A bit of scripture or sometimes just, “Do you know how much I love you?”

Then the message changed. I’d hear Him say, “Come talk with me.” That felt different. It was like in those early days He was teaching me to know His voice. This new message said that He wanted me to know Him personally, and He called me into a new relationship. I remember thinking that maybe it was just my imagination. A sleepless time in the morning where my mind was overly active. Then in a devotion I was having in a car driving from New Orleans to Appleton, WI, I read Psalm 27:8, "My heart has heard you say, "Come talk with me. Any my heart responds, "Lord, I am coming." Thank you for your assurance, Lord! Now when He calls to me in the wee hours, I get up. Who can turn down such an invitation?  

It is not that I am special. I believe that each of us who know Him can listen and He will speak. He’s our Father, sitting beside us and longing for us to talk with Him, share out day, our observations, our longings, our failures ad successes. What parent doesn’t want to spend one-on-one time with the kids? This is how it must have been in the Garden when God walked beside Adam in the early evening after the day’s labor. “So tell me about your day, Adam.”

This morning at 4:30 I awoke without hearing him. But I knew He was calling. He put the words, “It is the wee hours of the morning.” In the darkness, I pulled out my notepad and wrote them in a scrawl large enough to be sure they hit the paper in the blackness. Then I put the pad aside and tried to get back to sleep. Nope. This wasn’t for my ToDo list, but for right now.  Write it now and I’ll put my words in your heart.

So here I am at the kitchen table typing to my blog. And the word God is speaking to me today is, “Write.”  That’s it.  “Write what I tell you, and I will do the rest.” So here it is. I wrote it, and you are reading it. It is just how God wants it. He is speaking to you now.  He wants you to come talk with Him. He also wants me to ask you for your prayers for Bud and me. Next Friday we will be in Knoxville at Two Rivers Church attending Quiet Waters as part of their listening prayer team. Please pray for us that we will be attuned to hear his voice, and that He will use the prayer teams in a mighty way.

AS FRANK SINATRA SAYS...

Lois here: At ReachGlobal Crisis Response we value each individual knowing who they are and how they are gifted, believing that self-awareness is important to effectiveness.  One of our tests is called the DISC personality profile. It assesses your behavioral style and preferred environment. I took it back when we were first coming into the ministry.  When I got the results back I was horrified to see a bid "D" after my name. D as in Dominance! I did my best to keep that information hidden. It just sounded like something one wouldn't want to be. I wanted to be I (Influence) or S (Steadiness) or C (Conscientiousness). I barely even registered the latter 3. And there is Bud...Conscientious steadiness. It asked us to answer as we are in our workplace. Dang! That was supposed to be me! Oh, how I burned with envy. I read words like...domineering. I don't want to be domineeing. And people would say things like, "You D's are hard to take sometimes." Ouch.
     So, I figured that having been a teacher ruling in my classroom all my life had tainted how I answered the questions and who I really am. So I took it over, determined to have a different result.
     So I uploaded the test and started answering. The problem is that I am totally driven to do things right. So I honestly answered the questions. I hit the send button and it replied that my results were winging their way to my email. So, with eager anticipation, I hurried to gmail and opened the message. And there is was...I was more D than before. I wanted to cry. And then I realized that I am who God made me. Why do I want to be different from that? I should celebrate who I am. So for the first time I actually read the report in detail. It said that D's like to challenge the status quo and want to get things done. D's like challenges and getting things done. They like opportunities to challenge themselves and individual accomplishment. Seek new and innovative problem-solving methods. Well, gee, I could learn to live with that.
     You see I made the huge mistake of looking only at one word and applying in a negative context to the whole person. Wrong. Doing that I missed the good stuff. Soooo. I have decided to embrace my D. Temper the bad aspects and be aware of if it is coming out too strongly. Yeah. I can do this. So, like the words of Frank Sinatra...I gotta be me. Thank you God for investing in my so many rich characteristics that I can use to serve you. Frank would be proud.