The Art of Listening to God

Listening for God’s voice these days can be a really tricky endeavor. With all of the distractions that we face in our day-to-day lives like phone calls, e-mails, text messages not to mention family responsibilities, it's a wonder that God can get through to us at all.

Now imagine that you are a young person (someone between the ages of 13 to 20 something). Those distractions have now doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the frequency and intensity. How are we as people who work with young people supposed to help them focus on God through so many distractions, when we ourselves can't focus?

I bet you were hoping that in this paragraph I was going to give you a three-step process to make listening to God easier, however that's just not going to happen. There is no easy process to listening for God's quiet voice. It has to be an art form.

For some, quieting the distractions around them might be the answer. They go away on a retreat and while on that retreat they can seem to focus better and can hear God more clearly. For others, they might get flashes through all the distractions and can somehow peace those flashes together so as to make sense of it all. While still others just happen upon what God wants them to do as though it was "magic."

I am often envious of those people who can connect with God so easily. It's as if they have a direct connection with God 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They make it look so easy while the rest of us struggle to make out in the quiet whispers what God wants us to be doing with our lives. What I have learned about listening to God is that for everyone the answer is just a little bit different.

So as you help young people discern God's calling in their lives, it is not a simple matter. Help them. Guide them. The truth I realized is that you know God is speaking to you when God touches your heart. When that happens, don't ignore it. Don't worry… If you don't hear God the first time he calls, God will keep trying until it gets through!