What voices are shaping me right now?
That was one of the questions we pondered at Sacred Saturday last weekend as we learned about and practiced the daily Examen. I love how the Lord met me in that moment of pondering in a way that was both surprising and very much needed.
Early that morning in my teaching, I had shared the line, “We seek the voice of God above all others.” It’s a simple sentence, one most of us would probably agree with quickly, but also one we might not stop to ponder very deeply. When we paused to practice the Examen, I realized this was the question the Lord wanted me to unpack with Him. As I sat with it honestly, I realized just how many voices I allow to influence me and mold me. The voices I listen to will slowly shape the person I become.
There are the constant voices of the world around me, news and social media reels telling me what to think about, what to worry about, or what I should be paying attention to. And what I pay attention to is where my thoughts and energy go. It is starting to make sense that the Lord is gently showing me that what I pay attention to disciples me.
There are strong voices of fear about the future of the people I love, narrating hard possibilities that haven’t even happened yet. If I allow the fear of those possibilities to speak loudly, it invites the pain of what might happen into today and robs me of the gift of what is actually in front of me.
There are familiar voices from the past that still echo from time to time, voices of pain, trauma, and lies. Those are probably the easiest voices for me to quiet these days, as the Lord and I have done a lot of work together over the years to silence them. But every now and then, I still hear their echoes.
Then there is the loud voice of expectations, the expectations of the people around me. And sometimes even louder are the expectations I place on myself, the subtle pressure to prove myself, to have the right answers, and to keep everything together. These voices have become quieter over time, but if I am not intentionally seeking God’s voice first, they are often the first ones to grow loud again.
As I started naming them, I was surprised by how cluttered my thoughts became. I looked back over my notes from the morning and saw the line I had taught earlier: we seek the voice of God above all others. I humbly asked the Lord to help me do just that, to learn from Him (Matthew 11:28–30) how to quiet the other voices and seek His voice above all.
In our current sermon series, Mark has said several times that being a true follower of Jesus means allowing Him to rearrange our lives. Maybe part of allowing Jesus to rearrange our lives is first allowing Him to rearrange the voices we listen to.
Not rearrange in the sense of adding more to an already full schedule, but reorganize in the deeper sense of what I am paying attention to. If we truly want to seek the voice of God above all else, we may first need the courage to notice the other voices that have shaped us along the way.
For me, that rearranging is looking like spending less time on my phone, because those silly reels really do play a part in what I think about. It also looks like acknowledging when my thoughts begin lingering on things that have not yet happened, admitting that fear to the Lord, and laying it back down, asking Him to help me be present in the moment right in front of me. It also means continuing to remind myself daily of the gospel that God’s love for me is bigger than my past and the expectations placed on me by others or even by myself.
I encourage you to take some time to ponder with God what voices you are allowing to shape you. I am still sitting with that question myself, and I am already seeing God rearranging my life in ways that help me continue to grow in seeking His voice above all others.
The voice we learn to trust the most will eventually shape the life we live.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you: as we learn to quiet the many voices around us, may we begin to recognize the steady, faithful voice of Jesus calling us to be complete in Him.
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