In these remaining days before our national election, there are so many voices and messages vying for our attention. If we want to be responsible participants in our democracy, most of us feel like we have an obligation to listen, to understand, and to take in all of this information so that our votes and the other ways we participate in our democracy are meaningful. Doing that, however, can be overwhelming and exhausting. It can leave us feeling lost, hopeless and defeated.
There is a story in the Hebrew scriptures of a man who was known to be a prophet of the God of Israel. His name was Elijah. Although this story was not about democracy and elections and the kind of politics that we are facing, he was deeply involved in the life of his people and their use and abuse of power. He became, at some point, deeply overwhelmed by it all, lost and hopeless, and he sought some way forward for himself.
The story says that Elijah ran away from all of the chaos to a cave seeking direction, meaning and guidance. His God moved him to go out to the mountain. There, a mighty wind blew so fiercely that it tore rocks off the mountain, but guidance was not there. Then an earthquake struck, but guidance was not found in the earthquake. Then, there was a fire, but guidance was not found in the earthquake.
There are other stories in the Hebrew scriptures where the Guidance of their God did appear in wind, or in an earthquake, or in a fire. These were ways in which no one involved in the story would have been surprised at the appearance of guidance, but this time, for Elijah, guidance was not found in any of these natural signs.
After the great wind, the earthquake and the fire, there came to Elijah a still, small voice within himself. And when he heard it, he covered his face, and he received the guidance he was looking for.
Whatever you call it: God, meaning, direction, guidance or something else, in times like these, the overwhelm we feel is real, and it may require us to find a little space where all of the ordinary means of guidance fall away, a place where the voice inside, the one we actually already know, can speak to us.
~Bob Patrick
