“And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-12). If we were given the power to speak with the voice of God, how many of us would be tempted to abuse it? It would be so easy to go up to those who have hurt us or ignored us and boom with stentorian thunder until the ground starts to shake and their teeth start to rattle and the very air bursts into flame. That's what we imagine the voice of God to be, right? All shock and awe and a million decibels and expensive pyrotechnics. But that is not God's voice. Although He could speak to us with enough force to pulverize our bones, and maybe we often deserve such an earth-shattering verbal assault, instead of that He speaks to us with a still small voice of perfect mildness. When we make mistakes, His voice is still small. When we ignore His warnings and get ourselves into trouble and then blame Him for our problems, His voice is still small. When we have disappointed and betrayed and rebelled against Him for the four hundred and ninetieth time that day, and even Job would have lost his patience and tried to strangle us out of sheer frustration, God's voice is still small. Make no mistake. God feels wrath. I have no doubt that there is a little piece of Him that would dearly love to grab us when we are being extra stupid and shake us and shout at us with the kind of voice that levels mountains so that we will finally just listen to Him. But even then, His voice is still small. Whether we are on top of the mountain or at the bottom of the pit, deliriously happy or soul crushingly depressed, busy and anxious or calm and peaceful, righteous or wicked, God’s voice is still small. God does not stop speaking to us in His still, small voice for one second of our entire lives, but we so often cannot hear Him because there is a raucous cacophony of chaotic, loud voices trying their best to drown out God's still small voice. Finding a needle in a hurricane is sometimes easier than finding that still small voice amongst all of the distractions, but finding it is always worth the effort. The better we get at tuning out and ignoring all of the other voices, the more easily and clearly we will be able to hear that still small voice.
