Shouting

Have you ever heard the voice of the Lord?

I don’t think anyone has had that privilege or would even acknowledge the fact that the Lord Our God’s voice spoke, sang, shouted, re-sounded, or even whispered in the air surrounding this tiny earth. We have been told that He spoke life into being such things as the Light, probably lending His spoken word through a wind which carried His sound. We remember in faith how He spoke light into existence. And because it was a good thing, He continued on and brought up Darkness and Day, which began to move in a mysterious order that became our evenings and mornings, seemingly, as described in Exodus. Yes, as that first division blossomed, as the darkness, described as night, was moving over the horizon, it was followed by Light which was dedicated to and called Day. Both together created the first change of scenery from darkness to light. And it took 24/7 of God’s strength and the first laborers on behalf of our earth, using His loud voice as a shovel, a weapon, a tool to create the two shades of life in the universe.

But the poet in Psalm 29 bangs out how forceful the voice of the Lord really was. It soared above the waters. It boomed with a sound of thunder which today often shakes our souls and our buildings. And it blew over the waters in such a way that it restored what was to be called thunder, not just common ones, but rambunctious, noisy ones. And those glorious first moments were amplified by the fact that the voice of God’s love was amazingly and sufficiently powerful, beyond anything man had imagined. It was so strong and right that it broke into pieces the cedars of Lebanon, which were the greatest of trees. God did with a swish what hurricanes and tornados and storms take time to destroy in their scary storms.

And that same Lebanon location skipped like a calf while its neighboring Mount Hermon cantered off like a young wild ox. All was credited to the loud shouting of the Lord, something never heard by any spirit or man up to that moment, or even sensed something similar. Yes, mankind today often tears up monster boulders and mountains, with machines that make an unbearable noise. But that’s not related to God. God’s voice spread over the beauty of everything He had created so that no one would miss the purpose, the love, the soul of what He was sharing with us. Just His shout was brilliant enough to make things happen, to fall into place, to build or form into something beautiful out of the material He had put on this earth. It could even split the flames of fire, or shook the wilderness of Kadesh, and his voice made the oak tree writhe while stripping the forest bare just as His breath passed.

How important is our voice? What kind of loudness weaves in and out of our lives? Loud song, yelling at a neighbor, ear busting screams as one leaps and shakes at some wild rock star show; and if one wants real shouting at its max, he goes to a football or basketball game. Or sits near a stack of parents trying to encourage their sons and daughters in some sport or theatrical or reward moment, or maybe searching where someone has been lost in the wilderness and needs to be and is found. Those in the world of Opera probably have the most extreme voices that carry with them all sorts of emotions. And on arrival out of the mother’s womb and brought into the noisy air-filled world that is life, babies let out that first yell, a new cry, that first sound confirming that another soul has arrived on the earth, maybe less loud than that early shout God used to get things in order.

Think about the sounds that occupy the air of this world from vehicles on freeways and in streets of cities, airplanes, trains that toot those horns at night to remind those sitting on the railroads to move elsewhere, and horns of speeding humans trying to get somewhere fast, and  loud speakers and sirens that warn of danger, death, and crime in action, music that eats up all the air of a night, and there are those sounds of thunder and storm and fiestas and fights and floods and bears and dogs in a pack, and lions in love, and elephants collecting their offspring as they move on down the roads of Africa. God set it all up. It is for everyone. You don’t have to be some particular faith.

Gandhi wrote that religions are different roads convergent to the same point. What does it matter that we take different roads, so long as we reach the same goal? It shouldn’t matter what your faith is, and one needs to move over and allow everyone to sit down beside you and share the spirit that fills one’s heart and listen for the shout of God, that sound that is beyond sounds that lets us know that He awaits all of us no matter who we are, what we have done with our lives, and what we think or believe. We need to respect everyone’s belief. This isn’t a competition. One team is going to win over the other. It is the soul of all of us taking different roads to find joy and love and peace in their lives, because that was why God made this earth, to become what it is with his magnificent shout that began it all. And the shouts of so many faith leaders, Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Heschel, and so many who could hold hands and sing in their loudest voice the blessings of God Almighty, if people of the earth would just learn to love and take care of each other as we stroll or struggle through life until that hour that comes when each of us hears that voice of God saying, Welcome into the Holy Kingdom.

~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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