HEY!!! Yelled my team lead at the top of his voice. He had tried, unsuccessfully, to get my attention but I hadn’t heard him. I mean, how could I when I was surrounded by noise? I had just been trained as a machine operator and this was my first week working with the machines.

If you’ve ever worked at a large production site with a multitude of machinery all running at once, you understand exactly what I am getting at. If not, imagine being in a room with lots of loud noises coming from all directions all at once. At least that was what it felt like to me. When I eventually came out of ‘wherever’ I was and heard him, he carried on in a frustrated tone; can you not hear the beep!?”

My first thought was “you must be joking right now. I am surrounded by noise and you ask if I don’t hear a beep?”

For obvious reasons, I didn’t respond with my thoughts, instead I asked “what beep? ” Following the direction of his finger, I noticed one of the machines was jammed and making a ‘beeping’ sound. Quickly running towards the machine, I fixed the problem and work carried on.

In the early weeks the sounds frightened me and I would find myself jumping. These sounds were designed to help identify various components of the machines and their functionality. To me, however, they all sounded alike which only made it confusing and frightening. I had to train my ears to distinguish between the different sounds and with time, practice and further training, the noises became sounds.

The sounds in those machines are there by design, as communication signals to help the operator do their job effectively. As humans we are voice activated and seemingly live in a world full of noise. All around us, there are voices shouting at us from various directions. We were made to communicate with God, to hear and respond to His voice.Yet, people oftentimes are afraid of the voice of God because they do not know and are unfamiliar with that voice.

They are used to voices that speak to and speak of their inadequacies; voices that expose how frail they are. Voices of judgement and condemnation.These are all noise. Noises that have been mistaken as the voice of God.

 The book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tells of the beautiful story of creation- of man and woman and their relationship with God and each other. Everything was great until they started listening to the serpent in chapter 3. Immediately after heeding to the serpent, verse 8 says…”And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

The voice of God is a voice of love, a voice of acceptance and affirmation, a voice of forgiveness, a voice of hope, and a voice of freedom. A voice that says there is more to you. A voice that says “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” John 3:17.

Yet Adam and Eve did not recognise this voice because they were only focused on the noises around them. The voice of God still speaks loudly today through His word- the Bible- giving direction and purpose. Showing God’s love and plan for humanity and encouraging you to take that step.

You may be in a low place. You may be a victim of circumstances. You may have knowingly, walked into an unfortunate situation and you think you deserve what is coming to you. Or you may just be going through life without a sense of purpose. Whatever the situation, you need to hear THE VOICE within; irrespective of whatever noise you are surrounded by.

#thevoiceofGod

#thevoicewithinthenoise

#bloggingwithkay

#mystory