Recently, I was involved in a pastor’s meeting and I was asked the question: How do you know when God is talking to you? How do you know when He is asking you to do something or when He is calling you to move forward in ministry in a particular way? It’s always been a difficult question for me to answer… and that meeting was no different. I have never heard the Lord audibly speak to me… even when I was called into ministry back in Jr. High. He didn’t audibly tell me to resign from my first two churches. He didn’t audibly tell me that I was supposed to marry Melissa Jane Wright. I don’t remember how I answered that day at the pastor’s meeting… but I’ll attempt to answer now as I continue reading McHugh’s fourth chapter.
Of course, I hear from the Lord while reading the scriptures. That’s an easy answer. But what about those moments when I’m up against a decision that the scriptures do not directly address? Or what if it’s a decision between a good thing and a better thing? How do I make my decisions? I think the Lord grants me brief moments of clarity at various junctures… moments when ideas flood over me. It doesn’t happen every day or even every week… but it does happen… and usually at just the right time. It’s a weird process that is difficult to explain or pin down. I can be sitting on a decision for several weeks and have no leaning or inkling of how to move forward or what to decide to do… and then, all of a sudden, I have clarity and a path forward opens up.
I don’t know if that’s an introvert thing… or just how God chooses to work through me. But McHugh says something in this chapter that catches my attention: “It may be that introverts are more equipped to hear and see what God is doing inside of them, while extroverts are more sensitive to his revelation in the outer world. God’s speech to introverts may come in the form of inward thoughts or impulses, ideas that spring out at us, or words, images or feeling that surprise us or cut against the grain of our natural tendencies. As introverts, we need to take the activities of our inner worlds seriously in order to hear the overtures of God sounding in our lives.”
This sounds strangely familiar… I’ve often noticed that God speaks to me through ideas. Sometimes it’s just a random thought that develops into something more. Sometimes the idea comes… but remains incomplete until I hear another puzzle piece of an idea from someone else that fits directly in with what I’ve been thinking about. Like I said, it’s extremely difficult to pin down… but McHugh’s definition really helps explain the process.
So while I can’t always pin down how God communicates to me… or how to explain those moments when He communicates with me… I do know, without a doubt, that he does communicate with me. He has always been a faithful guide. And even though He doesn’t speak the same to me that he has to others… that’s ok. Because He is choosing to speak to me in ways that He knows will capture my attention. He knows that a powerful and organized idea will capture my attention way more than most other methods. At the end of the day… He knows me better than I know myself… and chooses to communicate with me based on that knowledge. And for that, I am so grateful…
Next time around, I’ll try tackling McHugh’s section dealing with life’s rhythms and how that can be important for an Introvert.
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