I took a week off of blogging while our oldest, Megan, was visiting. But now back to the topic of how we relate to God (or how God relates to us) in our work world. The idea of hearing the voice of the Lord for our work is attractive, but is it sound? And the other meaning of that word “sound” is significant. Even the use of the phrase “voice of the Lord” is problematic? There is something bizarre about attempting to hear the voice of someone who is capable of speaking, but rarely does.

It is common to hear people relating what they “heard from the Lord” with the immediate caveat that it was not actually an audible voice. How do you hear something that is not making any sound? You don’t, but what people are really saying is that God communicated to them. But why doesn’t God use an audible voice more often?

Dallas Willard shares a joke in an interview with Lucy Shaw. “When we speak to God we call it prayer, and when he speaks to us we call it schizophrenia.” God is capable of speaking with an audible voice and He does that in Scripture in places. And I submit that we would all want to hear from His audible voice on a regular, even daily basis. But the only people who claim to experience that are mentally ill.

So we need to reckon with the fact that God chooses not to communicate with us in an audible voice most of the time. Yet wouldn’t He communicate in an audible voice if the most important thing was for us to hear His voice and obey Him?

I think there is an understanding that the optimal Christian life is to turn your life over to God and let Him run your life instead of you. I would call this “Jesus take the wheel” where our life is the car. In this understanding, hearing the voice or direction of the Lord is crucial because we still have control of our lives and therefore the way to surrender our lives to Christ is to do what He tells us. But if this was the optimal Christian life, then God would use His audible voice to direct us. The fact that He rarely does that indicates that He has something else in mind.

Adam and Eve failed to obey the command not to eat of the forbidden fruit, but they were not created to simply obey the voice of the Lord. They were autonomous creatures who were going to steward God’s creation. And they did that largely on their own. God was not directing their every move, but was meeting with them at the end of the day. God is not seeking obedient servants who will obey HIs voice. He is seeking disciples who will share His character and act out of godliness.

My son Ben has his learner’s permit for driving and this might be a helpful analogy. I am in the car with him, but if I take the wheel (God forbid!), something has gone terribly wrong. Early on, I was directing him with my audible voice, but that is less and less now. The goal is not for him to obey my guidance on how to drive the car. The goal is for him to learn to drive the car well without the need of my direct guidance. I think this analogy may be more appropriate for understanding how God relates to us in our work than “Jesus take the wheel.” More on that next time.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.