My dad started losing his hearing at a relatively young age due to being around loud machinery when working in the oil industry. There were times when my mom or one of my sisters would say something to him and we’d get no response so we learned to just talk louder or poke him to get his attention when we had something we wanted to tell him. But sometimes he’d chime in to a conversation we were having and we’d be shocked he heard us — that’s when we started joking about his selective hearing! We realized he wasn’t really that hard of hearing after all. He just liked to tune out anything he didn’t want to hear. Sound familiar?

When it comes to God, what about us? Do we hear him? Do we even want to hear him? Or do we hear only what we want to hear and tune out the rest?

I think the main reason we don’t want to hear him is that somewhere deep down we know he is not an impersonal, unknowable, distant god. He created us in his image and we are moral beings with a conscience, intuitively knowing right from wrong.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve lived in paradise and enjoyed each other and an intimate relationship with God. After they chose to deliberately disobey and ate fruit from the one tree that was forbidden, God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” He knew the answer but he called out to them anyway. He knew they were hiding because they were ashamed.

God has been calling out to us ever since. He created us with a freewill to choose him or reject him. Knowing ahead of time that Adam would sin by rebelling against him and choose human wisdom over God’s instruction, he already had a plan in place to restore the broken relationship caused by sin. The Bible is a history book containing the unfolding of that plan. He knew that we needed to come to understand our need for a Savior. We needed to learn that God is holy, righteous and just. We also needed to realize that no one can live up to his righteous standard, and because of that we are separated from a relationship with him. Light and darkness do not mix. This separation was not his original intent — he created us for and longs for a personal relationship with each of us. But because his justice requires that sin must be punished, and knowing we could never live up to his perfect standard and would suffer the penalty of our sin (which is death), he sent his Son to pay the penalty for us. I like to think of the cross as the place where his perfect justice and his perfect love meet.

I know for me there have been many times when I have deliberately tried to tune God out. I wrote about the first time in my “So Much More” post, when my friend wanted me to consider that God was real. It’s one thing to believe there is an impersonal god way out there. It’s entirely another thing to believe in him personally. To truly believe in God on a personal level meant I had to admit that I am a sinner. I had to reach up through faith and accept God’s offer of salvation made available to me through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. It wasn’t easy to set aside my human wisdom and pride — admitting that God was right and I was wrong, that I had missed His mark of perfection, that I was a sinner. Up until that point it had been easier to deny Him and keep my shame hidden. Admitting the truth meant I had to accept life on his terms and not my own. I still struggle with that at times. I think we all do.

Sometimes I wonder if more people would respond to God’s call today if he spoke to us the same way he did in the Old Testament — audibly, like he did to Moses through a burning bush or like like he did to Balaam through his donkey. I think not. Sadly, there have always been those who have responded to his call, and those who have chosen not to hear.

If we really want to hear him today, the best place to start is taking a good hard look at Jesus — why he came, how he lived, why he died, that he was resurrected, that he appeared in bodily form to his disciples and many others before ascending back into heaven, and how he promised he’s coming back again. Everything God has ever wanted to say to us culminates in Jesus. The following words from the book of John in the Bible describe Jesus as the Word of God in the flesh:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it … The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 9-14)

God has spoken to us through His Son. Can you hear him?

Holding fast,

Lisa

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

and through him to reconcile to himself all things,

whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

(Colossians 1:19-20)