Hearing God Speak

16Apr
Blessed is the Lord! 
for he has heard the voice of my prayer.

The Lord is my strength and my shield; 
my heart trusts in him, and I have been helped;

Therefore my heart dances for joy, 
and in my song will I praise him.

The Lord is the strength of his people, 
a safe refuge for his anointed.


-Psalm 28:6-8

When I gave birth to my first child, I required three blood transfusions, which occurred just 13 days before New Orleans blood banks began testing all donated blood for AIDS. My gratitude that my daughter and I didn’t get AIDS turned into a desire to serve those dying with AIDS, and I volunteered with the NO AIDS Task Force to deliver food to those homebound.


One day I was asked to go with Fred, one of the officers of the Task Force, to meet with the Mayor’s Council on AIDS, to plead our case for Ryan White funds. Fred was very nervous—services depended on this money. We got into the elevator, and just as the doors were almost closed, a purple umbrella appeared in the gap. The doors reopened, and in walked a woman dressed in purple from head to toe-literally head to toe. A purple hat, a purple suit, purple gloves, purple stockings, purple shoes and a purple purse. Fred said, “Thank you Darnell, I needed that.” With those words, Fred visibly relaxed. I knew the Darnell about whom he was speaking. Darnell was a beloved member of the NO AIDS Task Force who had passed away a few years before. Darnell also wore purple from head to toe—his purple converse tennis shoes were legendary and later bronzed to become the participation trophy for the NO AIDS walk. I looked at Fred with complete skepticism on my face, thinking he was crazy. Fred just smiled sweetly and responded, “Lisa, God’s ability to speak to us is limited only by our willingness to be open to listen.”  


That one sentence changed me. I had always been open to scripture and sermons, but my experience with Fred opened me to see God’s hands working more often in my day-to-day life. As a result of being more open, several years later, I realized that poetry, like scripture, can be read in a lectio divina way—with an openness to hear what God is trying to have me hear or experience. Now, reading poetry is part of my daily prayer time, and, as I read it slowly, I listen for God’s voice. Similar to scripture, words of poems come back to me when I need them. Two phrases that I hear myself say very often are, “There is no safety, only the terrible blessing of the journey”, and “Fear wastes air.” I have attached the poems from which these lines are taken. Give it a try. See if these or other poems speak to you. I invite you to open your heart to hear God speaking through forms you might not have experienced before. Remember: “God’s ability to speak to us is limited only by our willingness to be open to listen.” 

Musical Reflection - Rewrite the Stars - The Piano Guys

Freefall  by Mark Nepo


If you have one hour of air

and many hours to go,

you must breathe slowly.


If you have one arm's length

and many things to care for,

you must give freely.


If you have one chance to know God

and many doubts, you must

set your heart on fire.


We are blessed.

Every day is a chance.

We have two arms

Fear wastes air.

Passover  by Lynn Ungar


They thought they were safe

that spring night; when they daubed

the doorways with sacrificial blood.

To be sure, the angel of death

passed them over, but for what?

Forty years in the desert

without a home, without a bed,

following new laws to an unknown land.


Easier to have died in Egypt

or stayed there a slave, pretending

there was safety in the old familiar.

But the promise, from those first

naked days outside the garden,

is that there is no safety,

only the terrible blessing

of the journey. You were born

through a doorway marked in blood.

We are, all of us, passed over,

brushed in the night by terrible wings.

Ask that fierce presence,

whose imagination you hold.

God did not promise that we shall live,

but that we might, at last, glimpse the stars, brilliant in the desert sky.

Loving God, Please open my eyes, my mind and my heart to experience your loving support, guidance and love in new ways. Amen

PsalmsPrayerEaster

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