Communication
“The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Exodus 3:2-4
Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful call using a telephone, 146 years ago today. He said to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” That was the beginning of modern communication, a long way from cave paintings, smoke signals, carrier pigeons and even what seemed to be advanced technology at the time, the telegraph. A year later, he founded the Bell Telephone Company, which for many decades operated without competition, for it was deemed the monopoly served the public interest by creating a telecommunications infrastructure that all could enjoy at a reasonable price.[1]
While a telephone to God would be very helpful (and I have a favorite “Far Side” cartoon drawn by Gary Larson as Exhibit A), most of us don’t have the ability to communicate back-and-forth with God that such phones might provide. Yet, scripture is replete with evidence that such communication has happened in the past: Adam and Eve in the Garden, Noah, Abram, and Jacob just to name a few. Yes, there are even some people today that have that gift of being able to converse with the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I would love to have God speak with me through a burning bush as God did with Moses – or even an unburning bush for that matter!
No, generally most of us have had to refine our ability to listen; to listen to God in prayer, to listen to God through His Word, and to listen to God through the events of our lives. Discernment is that art of listening; it is how we attune ourselves to the Spirit of God at work in our lives and around us. It requires us to pay attention and reflect on God’s movement in and out of our life each day. Through that practice of reflection, we hone the craft of growing more aware of the Spirit’s movement within our lives, and we grow to become aware of the unique “voice” in which God speaks to us through the events of our lives.
[1] Patricia A. Aufderheide, Communications Policy and the Public Interest: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (New York: Guilford Press, 1999).
