Cultivating a tender heart

I was going through some files this evening and I
pulled out a newspaper clipping I had copied from a few years ago. It's the scene of a tractor trailer that had overturned and closed the southbound highway for a few hours. Although I don't remember much about this case, I do remember the outcome: the driver walked out of the hospital with a broken scapula and a few minor cuts.


Sometimes I've wondered why I'm still alive. It's not unusual for me to be coming home from some event on a rainy day, suddenly the traffic slows, an ambulance and a cop speed by on the shoulder and I begin to wonder, "why did I leave 30 seconds later than I did?" "Why did that person come up and say 'hi' for a few seconds?" "Why did that driver cut me off?" "Why did I get stuck behind that truck?" And it's all to easy to pull off an exit earlier, cut a few more drivers off in my rush to get home, pull into my driveway, and start studying as if nothing had happened.

It's such an irreverent way to live.

Yesterday a 8 year old girl died in the NJ turnpike...just a small error in judgment, a nodding of the head, or a jerk of the wheel and a life was slammed into eternity. For some reason, these little blurbs always come on whenever I walk by the TV. Is it because I "just happen" to be walking by? Or is it for a very specific, defined reason? I submit to the latter.

As I wonder why I escape those accidents on the freeway I often think that God is keeping me alive for some reason, for some person, for something else He wants me to accomplish for him in this life. But it often never goes beyond those impressive events. For while I look for Him to speak to me in the exciting, tragic, or unusual events I encounter, I often fail to hear Him whispering to me.

Elijah after witnessing the victory of the Lord on Mt. Carmel goes into hiding in a cave from Jezebel. There God confronts him as to why he is in the cave. That call goes out to you today...what are you doing in the place where you are? Is it truly the place God has appointed you to be in, or are you hiding from His plan? Or, more importantly, what are you doing with the people, the opportunities, and responsibilities He has currently placed in your hands?

God then shows Himself to Elijah.

"Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave." (1 Kings 19:11-13)

Matthew Henry says, "Gracious souls are more affected by the tender mercies of the Lord, than by his terrors. The mild voice of Him who speaks from the cross, or the mercy-seat, is accompanied with peculiar power in taking possession of the heart."

Are you ignoring the small voice of God in your life while you search for the big, exciting, terrible, and powerful voice of God? Will you cultivate that tender soul that listens to that still small voice echoing from the blood stained cross saying, "Come, follow me"? And when your heart is cold and dull, and you miss what He's saying to you, He repeats it over again so you can hear. He wants you to hear His voice, He wants you to follow Him, He's calling out to you and me. What's Jesus telling you today? What words and thoughts has He been impressing upon your heart? In what way is He telling you this minute to love Him more?

I don't see accidents like the picture above every day, but yet how often I fail to miss the voice of God speaking into my life each day. Oh for a tender heart that stays close to the cross so that I may not miss that still small voice!