Just to Better Understand the Sound of a Whisper

In the movie "A Knight's Tale," the hero, William, is introduced to a crowd by his herald, Geoffry Chaucer.  The herald is trying to buy time while William struggles to fix his armor and arrive on time.  He launches a long flowery speech highlighting the fictitious trials of his master.  One of them was,

"In Greece he spent a year in silence just to better understand the sound of a whisper."

While the story in the movie, and the movie itself are fiction...there is something to grasp there.

This story keeps going through my mind.  I'll paraphrase, but you can find it in 1 Kings 18-19.

In Israel, King Ahab and his charming wife Jezebel have just had the prophets of God slaughtered.  All of them (except a few a guy named Obadiah saved in some caves.)

Elijah, a prophet of God, has just challenged the prophets of Baal and Asherah to a throw down.  That story makes me chuckle cause I kinda see Elijah like Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" movies.  He's this snarky old curmudgeon.  He taunts the other prophets that they aren't chanting loud enough, or that their god is on vacation, or sleeping.  (The goal was who ever got their god to light their sacrifice on fire was the real God.)

Elijah just rubs salt in the wounds.  Not only has he been talking smack all day, he has his alter and offering doused in water.  Three times.  Then he prays to God, and God responds by lighting the offering on fire and, the stones, and the ground and the trench full of the water run off.

Then he has the prophets caught and put to death.  The king runs home to his lovely wife and tells her how Elijah showed up her prophets and had them all killed.  She sends a messenger to Elijah with this message,

"May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them."

Pretty harsh words.  And for some reason, Elijah is shaking in his sandals.  He runs away.  Out into the desert.  An angel shows up and sends him to Mount Horeb.  The place Moses encountered God as the burning bush.  Where the ten commandments were given.  A holy mountain.  He gets there and spends the night in a cave.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is 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 "understood the sound of a whisper."  He knew that it meant God was approaching.  He listened, and responded.  And God told him what to do next.

Have you heard God whispering lately?  It is easy to drown him out with the all distractions and escapes we have at our every command.  Don't wait for God to speak to you with, "the writing on the wall."  Cause that communique was a final judgment.  Do not wait for the big signs.

Spend some time in silence to better understand the sound of God speaking to you.   And He has lots to say to us.


grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

Meant to Be

In my mind, one of the greatest moments in a character's story is when they are challenged to become what they were meant to be.

When Peter Parker swings across the page or screen in the blue and red tights for the first time.  Or Bruce Wayne pulls the cowl and cape on and leaps into the night as Batman.  Maybe one of the most iconic is when mild mannered Clark Kent rips open his dress shirt in the phone booth revealing the red and yellow 'S' shield of Superman.  There are hundreds more across books, film, and real life.

Please feel free to share your favorite "meant to be" moment in the comments!

For me, one of the most impressive "meant to be" moments is in The Return of the King.  (I'm talking the film adaptation not the classic book for this example.)  Aragorn, the long lost descendant of the royal line, is for lack of a better word, still lost.  He does not want to assume the mantle of king.  Why?  Because his ancestors were weak.  They failed the world when they were needed most.  They were seduced by power, and fell.


Aragorn does not want to be like them.  So he avoids the responsibility.  He is still noble, and brave and acts with courage and a good heart, but he avoids what he was born to be.  His moment comes at what would appear the worst time.  A massive army has been gathered to battle great evil.  He is looked at as a hero and captain among them.  In the night he is summoned to meet a mysterious stranger.  This stranger is revealed to be his foster father, Elrond.


Elrond holds in his hands the reforged sword of the kings, a blade that is rightfully Aragorn's.  It had been broken for generations, but was reforged for him, now.  With a simple statement Elrond challenges Aragorn,

"Put aside the ranger. Become who you were meant to be."

 A challenge he accepts, and rises to.  He succeeds where his ancestors failed and he becomes a good and just king.


There is a moment in every Christ follower's life like this one.  Where we are challenged to become who we were meant to be.  Jesus didn't come to earth, live, die and rise so that we could live our lives in quite exile, working from the shadows, and being less what he called us to be.


When he gathered his disciples he said, "Come, follow me.  I will make you fishers of men.  Leave behind your nets and boats and follow me.  Become what I am calling you to be, what you were meant to be."


I'm not getting into destiny and fate and all of that, but if you call Jesus 'Lord,' he has called you to be a fisher of men.  So put aside the accountant, the CEO, the janitor, the housewife, the athlete, the artist, musician or whatever you 'are.'  Put that aside, and become what you were meant to be, what you were called to be by Jesus.


A disciple.  A fisher of men.


Someone who follows after Jesus with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loves their neighbor as themselves.  Some one who does as Jesus talks about in Matthew 25: 35-36

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Becoming who you were meant to be is a life long task.  To follow after Jesus and learn what he taught, how he lived, what he did, and putting those things into action.  To feed the hungry, clothe those who need clothing, look after the sick and so on.

It's not just a magical moment, frozen in time.  The decision is.  But the becoming goes on long after.  You can't be a disciple if you don't learn.  If you don't learn how to disciple, you can not be a fisher of men.  If you can't be a fisher of men, you can't be what Jesus meant for you to be.

I'm not writing this as someone who thinks they've 'become.'  I'm still on the path, I'm still learning.  I'm still becoming who I was meant to be.  Who Jesus wants me to be.

So I challenge you to hear the words of the Messiah, Jesus, "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." 

Put aside the _(fill in the blank)_ and become who you were meant to be.

Grace, peace & hope
-Jersey