Listen, the Good Shepherd is speaking!

A long time ago, when I was little more than a novice, a man many years my senior taught me about listening carefully, hearing accurately. He was a native of Western Tennessee and could hear the nuances of accent between people hailing from various Tennessee counties. They all sounded the same to me, but he would listen and hear what I could not.

I wondered, “How does he do that?” So, I asked! The reply was simple, and profound. First, “I am a native of Tennessee and learned to speak my mother tongue with my home county’s peculiar accent. And, I was the pastor of a church near Ford’s River Rouge Plant. Folk came North to earn good wages and became part of our church family. Each one had a slightly different dialect, and I learned several.”

The life applications are not buried deeply. You can anticipate one or more. We are familiar with our mother tongue. Tones, inflections, idiom, and cadence become part of us. And, when we hear the slightest difference, our ears transmit a message deep into the inner man. A strange accent signals, “Stranger!”

Jesus’ self-disclosure as the “Good Shepherd” in John 10 was part of his training of the Twelve, those who would serve as apostles, leading the way to make Him known following the ascension. He said very simply to those who understood the characteristics of sheep, “ ... his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” Sheep recognize the voice of only one shepherd among many. Many flocks may share a watering place or graze together in one field, but sheep respond to only their own shepherd’s voice. Other shepherds may call out, but only his sheep will follow.

If we would spend more time listening when praying, learn the cadence and inflections of God’s voice in His Word, become comfortable with the witness of the Holy Spirit, we would be familiar with the Good Shepherd’s voice. When we listen, we discover, God is speaking and I follow him! If we learn to listen, we take fewer excursions up blind alleys and going nowhere cul de sacs. Is it safe to say that our own voices, and those around us, are often better known than the Shepherd’s? Alas, some quote their favorite preacher or author, than speak with awe and respect for Jesus’ voice giving direction and counsel.

We may also remember that the Good Shepherd does not carry voice enhancing bull horns or deafen His sheep with blaring orders. He most often whispers, or uses quiet cues which assure His charges that they are safe, that He is present and leading us safely.

A quaint song authored by C. Austin Miles is now seldom sung, but captures much of the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching.

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Refrain

Listen friends, and fellow sheep, God is speaking!

P.S. Since it will be a new song to some, “In the Garden” may be presented sometime soon where you worship!