A Still Small Voice

There is so much noise in this world.

Between pop up ads on the internet, commercials, promotional emails, Facebook statuses, blog posts, You Tube videos, and everything else - sometimes all of the noise can get overwhelming.

There are times I don't blame hermits for living in a hole. At least you don't have to deal with all of the noise.

I know sometimes I contribute to the noise - we all do. We all have voices and we want them to be heard.

This past Thursday and Friday I went to a local church that was hosting the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. The church Willow Creek in the Chicago area had a two day summit for leaders (church and business) with talks and interviews from leaders around the world. Politians, enterpenuers, pastors, authors, etc. Then other churches and locations around the globe act as hosts and have it live-casted over the web. So it's almost like you really are there at the summit. You get the same name badges, registration, room decorations, and even snacks as the live location. Only... you're watching a screen and not people on a stage.



I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it- I don't typically enjoy leadership training all that much. A few things I'll learn and really take away from it, but I can only take "energize your team" speeches and talks about "have a vision!" for so long. However, I did like this summit. There was more that I liked than I did this time. Maybe I'm growing as a person. Who knows?

The second day, a small voice came from the speakers.

Our lay minister joked that he thought his hearing aids had to be turned up.

Her name was Paranthia Timothy.

She is from India. Her voice was feeble because she once had a brain tumor and for awhile she had no speech at all. When she recovered she was able to speak, but with a small voice. She said,

"God gave me this voice. Feeble, but powerful in his hands."

This was not the greatest miracle I have seen. The greatest miracle is how "God can transform a heart."

When she spoke, you could hear a pin drop. No one could tear their eyes away from her. People who had furiously been taking notes for the last two days stopped because they didn't want to miss a single thing she had to say.Grown men had tears in their eyes as they heard her stories.

Source

Paranthia has led over 50 missions to save slaves in India.

Her message was simple. She said that in her life, she has learned three things:

"We are called to serve. I am not a hero, I am only called to serve."

"This life belongs to God."

"God is good."


Among all of the horrors she has seen in her life - this is what she has learned.


Simple words from a small voice.

We hear these things in church and Sunday school. We are told them all of the time.

But how powerful are these simple words in a world full of noise?

Think about it. So many times we try to make things seem "cool", or "trendy", or "popular", or we try to have "swagger." (I'm still not 100% sure what that means...) While doing this, we make things complicated. We try to make our voices louder. We make them confusing.

But it's the simple quiet messages that God uses to touch us the most.

We are called to serve.

This life belongs to God.

God is good.

Think about it. If we all truly believed and knew these three things in the depths of our souls... how different would we live our lives?

How would we treat the people around us?

How would we speak?

How would we live?

We are called to serve.

This life belongs to God.

God is good.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10