Korea is a hard place to live. Although I'm aware that the difficulties are not all about Korea but rather they are more just the difficulties of life. Last week was a rough week for me. Yet as I reflect on it, I'm really dumbfounded by how I am hearing God in my life. Hearing God's voice somehow makes a rough week not so bad. It puts the struggle, the questions, the concerns into their right place.
This semester I've thought a lot about how I listen to God. In our English chapels I've preached about listening to God through our whole life experience. I'm beginning to realize just how intentional "listening" has to be. God is speaking, no not audibly, but he is speaking.
He speaks through the beauty of a snow fall on red, orange and yellow fall leaves. He speaks through a neighbor who opens her life up and shares her heart. He speaks through a stranger who opens a door, holds the elevator, and allows me to exit before they enter. He speaks through a student who offers an intentional gift of kindness. He speaks through a friend who is able to live well and love well through her disabled-ness. He speaks through family members who show interest in important matters and want to experience life together. He speaks through church member who offers to give me a ride home from the grocery store so that I don't have to walk with the load of groceries. He speaks through shared meals together with friends. He speaks through conversation about God with a friend who speaks very little English yet works hard to understand. He speaks through a random phone call from a friend. Maybe it wasn't so "random" after all. He speaks through the sunshine and warm respit from an early winter. God is speaking. I'm learning to listen. It isn't as easy as I once thought. It requires my attention, the attention that is often given to so many other less meaningful things and the attention that is often focused on the difficulties, the questions and concerns of daily life.
I'm often not sure what God would want to say to me if I really heard his voice. Yet, in so many moments when it is clear that God is participating in this life together he is communicating his presence, his desire for relationship, his desire to be known and sought after, his love of beauty and goodness, his ability to make ordinary people and things extroardinary. He may not be saying audible words but all those things mean the world to one who is on the journey of following Jesus to wherever he is going here in Korea and beyond.
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