When God Repeats Himself

Yesterday, I wrote a message in this space. To be honest, when I was finished with it, I was like, where did that come from. That's not what I really set out to write at all. It was close, but it didn't capture the theme I originally intended. 

That happens to me occasionally. And I'm left wondering, was that a message TO me and not FROM me. 

One of the things I wrote in that message was this:

"The past couple of weeks, much like during 9/11, I've pictured God scooping some of the loudest voices from the stage and replacing them with the quiet and the humble. Only, these folks don't have time for the attention or any desire to make a speech when the stage is theirs. They just simply want to get back to doing what they've been doing all along. They want to get back to loving. They want to get back to quietly holding the world together the way they've been holding us all together all along."

This morning, when I read the two morning devotionals that I consistently go to each morning, I read eerily similar messages. 
Bob Goff said today, "God delights in our secret sacrifices. He created us with the hope that we'd join Him in restoring all that's gone wrong with the world, wherever we find ourselves. He uses the big, grand things everyone knows about, but he also uses the barely seen." 

Then, I went to my Henri Nouwen devotional, and Nouwen said this: "Maybe, while we focus our attention on the VIPs and their movements, on peace conferences and protest demonstrations, it's the totally unknown people, praying and working in silence, who make God save us yet again from destruction."

After reading those two entries, back to back, and reflecting on my words yesterday, I could only say "I hear you God." 

I have a favorite book - Whisper, by Mark Batterson. I go to it at times when I feel God whispering something to me. This morning, I went to the chapter that talks about feeling and understanding God's prompts. Because, to be honest, I was feeling him prompt me this morning. 

In this chapter, Batterson led me to this scripture in Isaiah (message version) - Chapter 30 verses 19-22:
Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”

You know, I've said it, I hear and feel my friends saying it, I hear government officials saying it as they try to speed us back to this place called "normal." And trust me, I long for normalcy. But the last few days, I've heard God saying to me, I think there are some things you need to leave behind when you back there - to this place called normal. I've heard him saying, you have some "expensive and fashionable god-images" in your life that are keeping you from experiencing my "grace and more grace."

I've heard him say, you know, there are people all around you who get this. They really do. They are "praying and working in silence" - they are walking down the right road. They are joining God in restoring all that is wrong with the world through their secret sacrifices. They are quietly holding the world together the way they've been holding us all together all along.

I've heard God repeat himself. Over and over the last couple of days I've heard him yanking at my attention. And I know when he does that, he's insisting that I hear something. 
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And I hear him. Oh do I hear him. The question is, when I find this road that leads back to normal, and I begin to travel it, will I still hear him?