One of my favorite movies of all time is A Knights Tale. It is one of those great movies that I can’t not watch when it comes on TV. There is a scene where Heath Ledger’s companion posing as Geoffrey Chaucer is performing his usual over the top and laudatory announcement of his jousting friend to the adoring crowd when he says something that got me thinking.
In the midst of lavish exaggerations, fake Chaucer says something to the effect of “he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper.”
A whisper is almost nothing. A few notches down and there would be no sound whatsoever. You have to be real close to someone both physically and relationally to carry on a successful whispering conversation. Distance between parties eliminates the art of whispering. That doesn’t seem like something that would take that long to understand but once again, I am proved wrong.
Elijah once was given the incredible opportunity to meet face to face with God. He had just finished a fiery dual with the prophets of Baal where God had showed up in an incredible way when he ran away to a cave to hide from people who wanted to kill him. It is amazing that we can see God so clearly in all His power one second and the next feel like He can’t save us from whatever circumstance we are in the next. God wanted to remind Elijah of who he was dealing with so He tells him to stay in a cave and watch because His presence was about to pass by.
“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” *
Elijah was so close to God that he recognized that God would be more likely to appear in a gentle whisper than in a rockslide.
“That random ball of fire that just came through here? Oh that was nothing.”
The Creator of everything chose to reveal himself with a sound that is almost nothing.
God whispers because you have to be close to him to hear it. Anybody can feel an earthquake, whispers are for the ones He wants to be close to.
One thing was just revealed to me about the familiar walking on water story in Mathew chapter 14. These tired, weary, and wave battered disciples thought they saw a ghost and not one of them recognized him as the guy they traveled the world with so Jesus had to tell them himself who He was. They all still had their doubts so Peter decided to ask Him something that would prove his identity, kind of like when you forget your Facebook password and they ask you all these predetermined questions to make sure it is really you. Instead of Peter asking Jesus to tell him what number He was thinking about or where he was born he asks one striking question.
“Lord, if it’s you…tell me to come to you on the water”*
Peter would know that this ghostly figure on the water was Jesus if He compelled him to come closer. Only Jesus would show his power and then invite him to join Him in it. It was characteristic of Jesus to want Peter closer to Him. He always wants us closer to Himself than where we are right now.
We are always looking for a “sign” from God that anybody with half a brain could see when God wants to personally swoop down from heaven and whisper directly into our ears and show us how close He views our friendship with Him to be. He just wants to have you lay your head on His chest and feel Him breathing. Signs are for those who don’t know God enough to hear him whisper. Everybody saw Jesus walking on the water; Peter got the privilege of getting closer.
The point of closeness to God is to bring others with you. Any truth you have ever learned was given to you so that you would share it. God stops speaking when you stop repeating.
I have been thinking a lot about whispers and am really considering the idea of a “voice fast” like our hero in A Knights Tale is said to have taken. I want to take a whole day without saying anything and focus solely on listening- listening to God, to the people around me and to the rare but ever so pleasant sound of silence. I want to better understand a whisper. Also, my foot hardly ever has to enter my mouth when my mouth decides to stay closed. Anyway, just a thought.
The problem is that everyone is a megaphone. That means that not everybody is shouting the right whispers. However, everyone is shouting something. It can get a little messy sometimes.
The issue is not that you don’t have a voice, but that it is echoing in the wrong place. The problem isn’t that you have nothing to say but that you are so terrified of saying it you pretend like your megaphone doesn’t work.
You don’t have to be a preacher, or a novelist, or political activist to use your voice, you just need to be quiet long enough to hear the right voice and bold enough to shout what you hear.
People are hurting and dying every single place we go. Where there are people, there is pain. Where there is pain, there is a need for a good megaphone. God has given me this blog to shout His voice; someday I hope it will be a pulpit but that doesn’t change the fact that I pass by hurting people all the time at Wal-Mart or the grocery store that need to hear something from God. Sometimes that one person God compels you to talk to needs to hear His voice more than a whole congregation of people listening to a sermon.
Where is your voice echoing? Who are the people you are already influencing that need to hear the whispers of the Almighty? We have the incredible privilege of drawing so close to God that we can hear Him whisper into our ears, how can we keep that to ourselves? We all have a megaphone.
Shut up and start listening. Speak up and start proclaiming.
*1 Kings 19:11b-13 NIV
*Mathew 14: 28 NIV
*Ezekiel 3:26-27
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