If Today You Hear His Voice

This verse from Psalm 95 is particularly appropriate for Lent as it calls us to one of the fundamental cornerstones of the spiritual life: Listening. God is the one who keeps making the overtures, and constantly reminds us that we have been his particular love since our birth, "I have carried [you] from your infancy. Even to your old age I am the same,/ even when your hair is gray I will bear you;/ It is I who have done this, I who will continue,/ and I will carry you to safety." (Isaiah 46; 3-4). God's voice comes to us in the people and events that come to us each day. God calls us not to "harden our hearts" to them: "If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts." (Ps 95: 7-8), but we do: God has spoken and we have not listened, commanded and we have not obeyed, loved, and we have not loved him as fully as we can or ought. This is what Lent is for: to open our ears to hear and our to turn our feet to follow God's voice. Let us make this our mantra for today and the days ahead: "If today you hear his voice, hardent not your hearts." Bro. Rene