The Still Small Voice

The Still Small Voice

You come noiselessly into our lives,

Soundless in the still small voice within.

So we fill you with words, 

of our own creating.

Words come tumbling forth 

and we cannot hear above the din.

Lost in the midst of growing noise,

 we lose the still small voice within.

We create the god for which we yearn,

the feeder of all our desires.

We hear the things we long to hear,

building want on want,

banqueting on selfish appetites.

We take the written words of ages past,

select,

                    manipulate,

                                        and use.

We make them say just what we wish to hear,

to form a crutch removing fear.

There at our beckoning, discarded at our will.

Oh, still small voice within,

let me listen with my mind,

the beating pulse of silence,

feel that life-giving flow

that I may know,

and hear.

The still small voice within.

The God of Our Creating

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah; and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

Matthew 16: 13-14

For many years, almost from the beginning of time, humans have created the gods of their own desires. The gods of their imaginations that brought answers to the ways of life. The more modern religions have continued to do something very similar but much more subtle and clever. Jesus becomes the first pacifist, crusader, or the greatest ever evangelist, whichever best fits the need of the day. 

It is a very short step from this to then claiming that Jesus was a conservative or even a communist. I am sure you have heard such claims being made? 

Such language and thinking is a symptom of the closed mind. It comes from those who have fallen into the trap of only hearing exactly what it is they want to hear and to say themselves. We can hear it frequently in the daily concourse of life. The writing and scriptures of world religions are quoted and used to add weight and support to personal arguments. The number of theories and propositions that grow from misuse of holy books goes on to this very day. Selective passages are taken out of context and used to defend and purport many a theory.

Such is the action of those who have arrived and standing on the arrival carpet of life have now closed their minds to anything that does not fit their theory. They have come to the conclusion and the journey of their life stops here. No more are they open to be prompted by the sages and teachers of old unless it supports their stance. No more do they seek counsel in their thinking, it may make them feel uncomfortable.

It is sad, for in so doing they miss the chance of a vibrant and living faith or system of belief. The winds of change go passing by and on their life causes not a ripple. We have the pick and mix religion of, Crutch Christianity, or at its worst, Manipulative Religion.

We need once again to learn as the sages of old to have wide open minds and constructive thinking, not the religion set in the concrete of history. it is so easy to become shrouded in the cobwebs of dead religion if we fail to allow the winds of the inner spirit to daily blow into our lives.