26mar06

Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice knows everything -- Henry Winkler

ACCORDING to engineering legend, a device to test the strength of windscreens on aeroplanes was invented by a US aviation company. The device was basically a gun that launched a dead chicken at a plane's windshield at approximately the speed the plane flies.

If the windshield didn't crack from the impact, it was likely to survive a real collision with a bird during flight.

The British, wanting to test the windshield on a new fast train, borrowed the chicken launcher, loaded a chicken and fired.

The windscreen shattered and the chicken was embedded in the back wall of the engine cabin, narrowly missing the engineer's head.

The Brits were horrified and asked the Americans to check the test to see if all was done correctly.

The Americans were very thorough and had one recommendation for the Brits: next time, thaw the chicken first.

That's what happens when we don't listen properly.

Dave Goetz, in his new book Death by Suburb: How to Keep the Suburbs from Killing Your Soul, claims modern suburban life is making us deaf to God.

He writes of desperate housewives, clueless husbands and stressed children -- the results of spirit-deadening alienation.

Goetz speaks of the challenges in finding God and the "thicker life", the lack of spiritual practices, consumerism, too much emphasis on the self, personal relationships based on transactions and being trapped and unreflective.

Then there's the obsession with celebrity. Psychologists say the obsession is a symptom of a larger cultural obsession with affluence, attractiveness and achievement at the expense of other values such as community, charity and commitment.

We are drowning in a sea of voices pulling us in many different directions.

The loudest voices seem to say that comfort and security lie in honouring the beautiful and the powerful -- chasing money and prestige. We are deeply impressed by worldly success.

If we don't honour God, it's because he doesn't really seem to deserve it in worldly terms.

If God is all-powerful, why doesn't he seem successful? Why doesn't he make a big splash across the universe for everyone to see?

Because God is most often revealed in humble circumstances.

We want God's voice to thunder through the air. But God's voice is often still and small; a gentle whisper. And nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper.

Bruce Waltke, in his book Finding the Will of God, said the creator was "not a divine sleight-of-hand artist with an elusive will that we must find like the proverbial pea in a heavenly shell game".

"God's will, after all, is clear," he wrote.

"God wants us to be holy, to be mature, to be more like Jesus. God is all about forging our character and welcoming us into greater intimacy with him."

We should stop being so timid about life. Deep down, we all know that happiness lies in embarking on the adventure of loving others and that selfishness will make us unhappy.

We cannot hear God if we cannot hear ourselves or hear each other.

Writer George Eliot wrote in the supposedly less-hurried Victorian times: "The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone."

A preacher I know woke up one morning recently and cancelled all his appointments for the day.

"I realised my boss -- God -- wanted a meeting with me. An all-day meeting," he said.

What the preacher learned from that day -- from the time with God -- was ultimately more value than any of his earthly appointments.

HEARING God's voice requires awareness of his presence. As writer Marianne Williamson said: "God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. The present is the only time there is."

It's easy to fall victim to the voices of spiritual predators. Don't believe anything unless deep down it resonates as truth. Stop and listen to the voice of truth -- God's voice, which lives inside of you.

Shel Silverstein, the brilliant comic writer, had his serious moments. He once wrote: "There is a voice inside you that whispers all day long 'I feel that this is right, I know that this is wrong'. No teacher, preacher, parent, friend or wise man can decide what's right. Just listen to the voice that speaks inside."

Bryan Patterson