Every morning when I pray The Lord’s Prayer, I ask that God’s kingdom come and God’s will be done in my life for that day. On a recent occasion, I felt the Holy Spirit gently asking me to pause and add “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” and “Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will.” Maybe Samuel and Isaiah were pulling for me that morning. And so I waited.
In the silence that followed, I finally sensed the Lord saying, “Listen for my voice, and watch for what I am doing.” With those words came the image of the Good Shepherd. As part of His flock, He was asking me to stay close enough to hear Him when he speaks. The words of Psalm 123 also came to mind: “as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters…so are our eyes on the Lord, our God.”
An insight from years past surfaced. If I truly want to do God’s will each day, I need to have my spiritual eyes and ears focused on Him throughout the day. It’s not enough to pray the Lord’s Prayer in the morning and then follow the schedule in my calendar and check off the items on my “to do list”.
How did Jesus know God’s will for Him each day? Mark 1:35 says “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” Do you think he went over his schedule and To Do List with the Father? Let’s see, today looks very busy – heal a blind man, send demons into a herd of swine, and publicly dress down the Pharisees.
I know I’m treading in deep unknown waters here, but I would venture to say that His submission to the Father’s will had more to do with surrendering His own plans to be attuned to the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus seems to say as much to his disciples in Jn. 5: 19 – “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.”
The Smoke Clears
Last month my wife and I spent a week in the Smoky Mountains with two of our sons and their families. Amidst our rides in the amusement park, on horseback, and in Go Karts, I learned that our nine year old grandson has a number of fears. But he also has a vibrant faith for a boy his age. Towards the end of the week, I felt a nudge to take him aside and encourage him to confront his fears. The passage from Mark 5: 36 came to mind: “Fear is useless, what is needed is trust.” Packing the car on Saturday, I realized that I hadn’t followed up. He was on his way home to Louisiana, and I had missed a rare opportunity.
The next day we attended Mass in a small parish on our return trip. When the Gospel was proclaimed, my heart sank. It was a passage from the fifth chapter of Mark. The very same one that contained Jesus’ words to Jairus regarding his fear for his dying daughter. It was a different translation, but the same message: “Do not be afraid, just have faith.”
I couldn’t help but think what could have been. What impact it might have had on my grandson. To have heard this Scripture passage from his grandfather a few days earlier, only to discover that it was also God’s Word to an entire global church community. It could have been a powerful message, not from a distant God, but from One who knows him intimately.
The lesson was clear. Listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd is a beginning. But acting on the words themselves has to follow. It may not lead to healing a blind man, but it will certainly open my eyes to ways God wants to act in my sphere of life. I think I’ll have to put this on my To Do List.
