Voice of God

Our "Closer" class is mainly a discussion class. Once the outline is established (thank you very much, JtM), I take it and work on preparation. As part of that, I read the questions, and try to answer them myself.

One of the questions that we discussed this week in class was "Did you hear God in the voices of the people around you?" When I went through the lesson, my answer was, "I haven’t been listening very well lately. I’m afraid I don’t have many examples to share, which just means that I have been inattentive." But later today, I found that I had a different answer.

Starting last night, through the night (although I slept fine), into the morning and through lunch, I was in what I would call a "mood." Have you ever been in a mood? There are different kinds, as I am sure you attest -- angry moods, tired moods, and more positive moods. This one was sad. Not horribly sad (lest you worry). Just sad.

Most Wednesdays, if I can find the time, I take my lunch to church, and my laptop, and spend some time working on the Wednesday evening lesson. Part of my Wednesday routine is to spend a little time in prayer for class -- praying for the class members, for my co-teacher, for me and for the class itself -- that God would use it for his purposes. At lunch today, though, I couldn't do much in the way of prayer -- not in my usual way. So instead, I asked God to lift away this mood.

Lunch was over, so I went back to work. When I got there, I found an email. There was nothing remarkable about the email, but something about it set to work. As I wrote the reply, I could feel the mood lifting. Something about what God had prompted this person to write -- and I'm convinced He had a hand in it -- and the response I was writing lifted my mood. I realized after I sent the reply that I was feeling amazingly better. And better. And better. A little while later I realized that the mood was gone. I was no longer sad -- not in the least -- and I was back to feeling like myself (and I'm usually pretty chipper!).

Class felt right, and on the way home, Josh and I were singing in the car.

Christ, working through one member of the body to answer the prayer of another. Have I heard God in the voices of the people around me? Yes -- often -- but today sticks in my mind.