Livin Lively

By Peggy Lively

In his book Windows of the Soul, Ken Gire describes how there are many different avenues and opportunities through which God speaks to us. In these moments He gives us a glimpse of Himself, or speaks some spiritual truth into our lives. But do we notice them? Are we aware enough to see and hear how He may choose to communicate with us, often through very ordinary, everyday experiences?

Gire says, “We reach for God in many ways. Through our sculptures and our scriptures. Through our pictures and our prayers. Through our writing and our worship. And through them He reaches for us.

            His search begins with something said. Ours begins with something heard. His begins with something shown. Ours, with something seen. Our search for God and His search for us meet at windows in our everyday experience.

            These are the windows of the soul.

            In a sense, it is something like spiritual disciplines for the spiritually undisciplined. In another sense, it is the most rigorous of disciplines—the discipline of awareness. For we must always be looking and listening if we are to see the windows and hear what is being spoken to us through them…

            We must be aware, at all times and in all places, because windows are everywhere, and at any time we may find one.” (Page 17)

            Solomon knew the importance and value of looking for and listening to God. God appeared to Solomon in a dream at Gibeon and told him he could ask for anything he wanted. Solomon asked for a “discerning heart” so he would have wisdom to rule God’s people. (I Kings 3:7-9) Gire says, “It’s interesting to note that the word discerning comes from the Hebrew word that means ‘to hear.’ A ‘hearing heart’ is what Solomon literally asked for, a heart that could look at an overgrown field or an ant at work and see windows of the soul.”  (Page 206)

            God speaks to us in many ways, if we are looking and listening. It isn’t always through a sermon or a verse of scripture. He knows each one of us intimately and the individual language of our hearts. “That is what God does when He speaks to us through the images that are most dear to us… The images may be so personal as to mean little, if anything, to anyone else. But they mean everything to us. He searches our heart for just the right image, as a mother would search her child’s toy box for just the right stuffed animal that would dry the child’s tears and bring a smile to the child’s face. That is how well He knows us. And how much he loves us.” (page 155)

            It may be a redbird in the snow that reminds us our sins were like scarlet, but He washes them white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18) Or maybe the colors of a rainbow remind us that God will never leave us or forsake us. (Joshua 1:5) Maybe it is the image of a sheep that comforts us by reminding us, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” (Psalm 23:1) Or maybe it is rejoicing when we find something valuable we lost that reminds us how Jesus searches for us when we are lost and rejoices when we are found. (Luke 15:11-24) He is speaking. Are we listening?

Gire asks the question, “How many windows have I missed because I was too busy to look? And how much wisdom have I overlooked because I was too behind in my schedule to even see what was being offered? The problem is not entirely in finding a quiet nook in this roller rink world of ours. The problem is quieting the soul in the midst of the noise.”  (Page 32)

            As I was reminded of these windows of the soul, these moments when God speaks to our hearts through the ordinary, I realized that this is my hope and prayer for these “Life Lessons.” That somehow through them, you may begin to see the spiritual in the simple and the eternal in the everyday.

Lord, help me practice the discipline of awareness that I may have a hearing heart. I pray that your Spirit would quiet my soul in the midst of life’s noise so that I may hear what you are saying to me. Thank you that you know the language of my heart, the images that are most dear to me. Thank you that you love me that much. Amen