The Road to Becoming: Rediscovering Your Life in the Not-How-I-Planned-It Moments by Jenny Simmons

Author:Jenny Simmons [Simmons, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian biography—United States, REL012130, REL012120, Jenny Simmons
ISBN: 9781493400591
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-08-24T22:00:00+00:00

In her breathtaking book on living a wonderstruck life, author Margaret Feinberg says, “Many of us say we want to experience God, but we don’t look for his majesty. We travel life’s paths with our heads down, focused on the next step with our careers or families or retirement plans. But we don’t really expect God to show up with divine wonder.”1

In my lostness it became clear to me that while I believed in God, I had lost my daily desire to listen for God’s voice. His divine wonder on display was sorely missing in my life and it wasn’t because God wasn’t showing up for the job. Walking through life with my head down, I had become like the grown-ups in The Polar Express and I could no longer hear the ring of the sleigh bell. My lack of connectedness to Christ became apparent when I found myself straining to hear His voice and coming up short. If God touched my face would I know Him? Looked into my eyes could I behold Him? What did I know of Holy anymore? It had been so long since my ears strained, my heart pleaded, and my whole being desperately waited in holy expectation for God to speak, move, and guide.

When we forget that God speaks, we begin to lose the ability to hear His still small voice, which more often than not shows up like a whisper and not the roar of a hurricane. The less dependent I am on God, the less likely I am to really listen for the sacred echoes of God’s voice. And then, when I most need those echoes—that holy guidance—I am surprised by the silence. Only, it isn’t actually silent. My ears are just jammed, humming with noise, clutter, and chaos.

“To believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary junctures of daily life,” Richard Foster says, “is the stuff of prayer.”2 In my lostness I found myself stopping and standing still for the first time in a long time. How could I expect to know if God was unfurling a map for my unknown future if I had lost the basic ability to experience Him in the ordinary junctures of life? I had to pause and recalibrate my hearing. Relearning the art of listening to God began to happen in the humbling season of lostness. With nowhere to go and nothing yet to do, I spent many mornings on the floor of my closet, a place I have gone since childhood to get away from the noise, listening for God’s voice. Reengaging in the conversation. Remembering what my mom told me time and time again: “Be QUIET, Jenny!”

Just listen. God will speak. He always does.

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