When God’s voice becomes clear.

God’s voice is most often expressed through a whisper but there are those times in our lives when He chooses to speak up. Trials are often God’s way of making His voice heard. Life’s deepest lessons are learned through trials. A life without trials would mean a life lived in complete darkness as our mortal eyes would lose more and more of their sight. There are things we can see only when our blind eyes are pierced by the light of heaven. Living on this earth day by day makes us lose sight of the things that are eternal- the things that give meaning to our lives. We are constantly faced with the danger of becoming asleep, thus no longer having our eyes opened in order to see the purpose of life. Sometimes it takes horrible things like a terminal illness, a natural disaster, or the death of a loved one in order to wake us up. The human heart can become so darkened that it takes a powerful force to break through its hardened shell. Sometimes the only thing that can awaken us is pain’s blow. We are so quick to say that God is silent but the truth is that we have become deaf to His voice. God has been speaking to us but we’ve become too preoccupied to listen. Pain has such a way of getting our attention. Last month, I found myself standing before my father’s casket- speechless. After almost 5 years of carrying the heavy burden of cancer, he finally laid it down. His soul was free. The body resting before me was the memory of his earthly battle. It was over. As I was staring at his lifeless body I felt as if the eyes of my own soul were being awakened. I, too, had fallen asleep. I had become blind to my purpose in this life. Even though we don’t often realize it, most of the time we are so busy saying things to God that He gets no chance to speak to us. Our prayers resonate with our own words and His voice gets drowned by them. So God allows suffering. Instead of doubting His heart when it hurts, we should rejoice at the thought that the God of the universe desires to have a word with us; not because He is forceful in making Himself heard but because He loves us too much to remain silent. It is in the thick of suffering that His voice is heard clearest. As His words opened my eyes, I started to see that our lives on this earth are but a vapor. We should not be so consumed with our earthly life, but should take time to dream about eternity daily, being always ready to open the wings of our soul and fly towards heaven. We should live our lives carefully, knowing that life is like a book and the days of our lives are its pages; every day counts because they add together one by one to compose the story of our lives. We should ask ourselves what we are leaving behind if we were to take our last breath. We should not live shallow lives, focused on fleshly pursuits like selfishness and pride but should live lives focused on eternal things, such as love and humility because they last forever. We should treat the ones around us in such a way that we would not regret not loving them enough if they were to die tomorrow. We should live with an awareness that there truly is something beyond this life and even though our earthly lives seem to last forever- they will surely end one day. We should treasure the Word of God and allow it to become an important part of our daily life; it is like manna from eternity on our journey through the wilderness of earthly existence. We should protect our trust in God at all cost- faith is the most important possession of all; it makes us one with the realities of heaven. Above all, we should live a life that makes a difference by allowing Christ to leave His imprint on everything our lives have touched. Even though trials are painful, we should listen for God’s voice in the midst of them. No matter how piercing the pain, God is with us through it all and He knows just how far to take us down the road of awakening. May we allow trials to open our eyes to the purpose of life!