Longing to Hear

In his book "Falling Forward,"  Richard Rohr wrote, "There is a deeper voice of God, which you must learn to hear and obey in the second half of life.  It will sound an awful lot like the voice of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of common sense, of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self..."  As I pondered his words, I found myself being drawn to the familiar words of the 42nd Psalm.  "As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."  (Psalm 42:1-2)    

"Longing" is a deeper word.  It conveys something beyond mere wanting.  It speaks of the unfulfilled.  It points us toward what is sensed, but not yet known or seen.  To long is to go beyond some superficial wanting.  It speaks, instead, of a desire that is intense, full of fervency, and a sense that life demands it to be alive.  It takes us to that famous passage from St. Augustine's Confessions in which Augustine states, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."    When we come to a time of sensing that there is a deeper voice of God which has been heard only as a whisper, we find ourselves walking with our ears attuned to the smallest sounds and our eyes darting here and there seeking what we know will only be glimpsed for a moment.   

It is like we have sensed the rustling behind a thin invisible veil which separates here from there and we are left standing in some kind tip toe anticipation as we wait for what it is that God may be saying, or where it is that God might be leading.  Even though the risk of the unknown which is surely unfolding is frightening and full of uncertainty, having heard the murmuring whispers draws us as surely as the deer run ragged from the chase seeks the cool refreshing water.  Hearing and knowing no longer is an option, but is, instead, what is necessary for the life that is still coming to us.