Article February 16, 2004 Issue

Listen your way through the storm

By Nate Talbot

I've Always admired that guy who was so shaken, aggressively buffeted, really feeling the heat so to speak, but then had such a profound inner calm that he moved forward effectively through very unsettling times. His name was Elijah, and his story is told in the Bible's Old Testament.

The tumult that surrounded him while he was camped on a mountain is described as earthquake, wind, and fire (see I Kings 19). But to me it illustrates states of thought. And right in the middle of all the chaos, the crucial factor was that Elijah was listening to God. Those very disturbing circumstances couldn't keep him from feeling, hearing, and recognizing "a still small voice."

We all may have our own, perhaps less dramatic, life events where we feel shaken, buffeted, faced with hot issues. That's when Elijah's story shows that something more important is going on. We can feel that same inner silence allowing us to hear God's voice, which says we're actually moving through some transitions in a way that will bless not just ourselves, but the people around us, too. Fear and doubt can't change the outcome. Elijah's experience of hearing that calming voice of God was proceded by moments when he was in fear for his own life, as well as in doubt about its value. Nevertheless, his time of refuge on the mountain was followed by dramatic spiritual progress in drawing closer to God, which eventually lifted him—literally—out of the limitations of mortality.