The Power of A Whisper

Imagine if your child asks you, "Mommy, you say God is real, when is the last time you heard from God?" I remember in the lowest point of my spiritual walk, I was very afraid that my kids may one day ask me that and all I had to offer was the encounter with God decades ago. No, I don't want that to happen. And so, I started learning how to discern the whisper from God and to follow His prompting. I long for a day-to-day walk with God.

Pastor Bill Hybels said, "Discerning God's direction is somewhat subjective, but it's not arbitrary." Bill lays out some principles along with his personal experience in this book. His experience in how God detoured him "only 15 minutes before he gave a talk" is amazing. I have posted in the images above. Take a look at it. This is how powerful a gentle divine whisper can be, if we take heart to follow it. 

Below is the excerpt of how Pastor Bill followed the whisper when he started the Willow Creek church:

"Within a few months, we said goodbye to those thousand students and began looking for a place to launch a church. we walked into our future having no secure job, no support from any organization and no idea if our new plan would strike a responsive chord with anyone. What we did have was the confidence that stems from receiving a clear whisper from God. We had placed our trembling hands in his strong ones and were confident that it was his lead we were following. It was not lost on me that the entire series of events could be traced back to a few days of solitude, when I was quiet enough to hear God’s voice."

I still remember the scene when I finished reading the book. I was on a flight back to San Jose. When I closed the book, I thought, "What if we respond to all the little prompting from God and actually act upon it as He guides us. How much more can we become?" I started asking God, what is my best, my natural gift and how can I use that more effectively . . . and I wonder what it would be like when we walk on that path consistently and persistently . . .

Adam by Henri Nouwen

 

Henri Nouwen was a professor at the Divinity Schools of Yale and Harvard for years. From a worldly perspective, letting go of the prestigious job at the Ive League universities to serve in a hidden community for disables doesn't make sense in many people's eyes. His writing reminds me that 生命的尊貴 (the nobility of life) lies not in the effectiveness of our lives or our work, but rather, on the fact that we are the beloved ones, however broken we may have felt. 

Here are some of the lines that touched me especially. Often time, the lift pace is so fast that it prevents us from taking a deep good look about who we really are and what it means by loving the ones around us. It is when our self-worth is no longer dependent on our title and functionalities that we are forced to live out our true identity as the BELOVED ONE!

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- "May we all find the place, the place where God wants us to dwell and serve, trusting that is where we need to be . . . nowhere else.  For there is no better place than the one God wants us to be at."

- "At first I had to keep asking myself and others, "Why have you asked me to do this?  Why did I say yes?  What am I doing here?  Who is this stranger who is demanding such a big chuck of my time each day?  . . .  The answer was always the same: "So you can get to know Adam."" 

- "How would I get to know him?"  [Adam could not speak or even move without assistance]

- It usually took me two hours to get Adam up and out of his bedroom into bathroom, out of the bathroom into the kitchen, out of the kitchen into his wheelchair, and off to his day programme.  When I had finally delivered him there, I felt a deep sense of relief and went to work, doing what I can do well: talking, dictating letters, counseling, making phone calls, leading meetings, giving sermons, presiding over ceremonies.  That was the world where I felt at ease and capable. 

- As I worked with Adam I began to see myself right in the centre of Day break. . . . All my life had been shaped by words, ideas, books and encyclopedias.  But now my priorities were shifting.  What was becoming important for me was Adam and our privileged time together when he offered me his body in total vulnerability, when he gave me himself . . .

- Adam kept 'telling' me in such a quiet way, "Just be with me and trust that this is where you have to be . . . nowhere else." 

(Quoted from Adam p.31-36)

Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry

Lessons learned from this book:

1. Past success can make us lose sense of reality touch.
2. Innovation doesn't necessarily mean venturing out new ideas in many different areas, sometimes, less is more and we need to stay focused on our core.
3. Moving too fast into too many areas can dilute the brand. By trying to please everyone we may end up please no one while losing our identity.
4. In order to stay relevant to the new generation, we need to take a good look at our core, stay rooted with our core, yet repackage it in such a way that is relevant and appealing to this generation as opposed to letting go of the core and jump right into the trend. We may end up get overcome by the trend and yet not able to maintain the origins.