Mindful Living: Listening to God

Most of my life I’ve been chatting with God. Sometimes through prayer, sometimes frantic begging, but always somehow. I never much expected God to talk back, and if she did I was pretty sure it would be like in that scene in the Ten Commandments where God speaks in that booming voice that sounds like James Earl Jones, except that maybe it would sound more like Tina Turner. Surely if God said something to me it would be a calling or a vocation, something erring on the dramatic.

Spirit does talk back to me these days, but as far as I can tell, she doesn’t sound much like either James or Tina. In his book Peace Is Every Step, Thich Nhat Hanh writes about quieting your life and listening to the still small voice within. It’s not the voice of criticism or judgement or fear, but the voice of love, the one that every once in a while says something like “Yes, this is love you have been waiting for,” or “Rent this apartment instead of the other one,” or even “Get the maple cream filled donut instead of raspberry jam.” Some might argue that the voice in my head is just my own intuition, and that may be true. But just as I am a daughter of God, the spirit that flows through me is divine, and if I hear it as intuition, at least I’m hearing it.

Other times the message comes from a friend or my kitty Boca or a bunch of purple loosestrife. God knows that we cannot always hear the wise inner voice, and kindly sends another messenger to deliver the Good News. So, while I do consider that my friends don’t always have the right answer, I take note when I hear a message that is clearly meant just for me.

The other night, one such message arrived when Spirit spoke to me in a dream. It was pretty scary actually, because this had never happened before. In the dream I was rushing through a burning factory trying to rescue my “children” who were being engulfed in flames. God spoke then, and told me that I had to be willing to give up the thing, the person I held most dear – referring to the children. That in the end, the only thing that counted, that could be relied on, is God’s Love. God wasn’t talking about allowing an actual child to die, but rather about not allowing or thinking of a person or a job or a place as the answer to your problems. Only spirit is the wellspring of life.

John Randolph Price writes about this wellspring in The Abundance Book. He says “You must begin this very moment to cease believing that money is your substance, your supply, your support, your security, or your safety. Money is not – but God is!… You must look to God alone as The Source and take your mind completely off the outer effect.”

American culture teaches us to take the bull by the horns, that action is the way to get what we want. I don’t always want to give up the idea that something, someone will solve my problems. But what if I were to listen to God’s voice and rely totally on spirit? What if?

Copyright August, 1999

Reprinting Information
Would you like to reprint this column? If so, do ask! I usually allow distribution because spiritually speaking, sharing ideas is an important way of expressing my faith. Please e-mail me at CybeleW@aol.com