I hesitate to write this because it’s such a common thought, but then I am a simple man, so if I rule out the common thoughts I won’t write about anything.

Last night, I heard a developing leak in a pipe beneath my kitchen. I’ve had a leak in that pipe twice before, so fixing it today will not convince me that something is not wrong with my water heater or something else that is causing this particular pipe to spring leaks. Of course, I tried to cast that care on the Lord and avoid worrying about it. This morning, I turned off the water main before leaving the house for a small group meeting.

At the meeting, we read a devotion by Frederick Buechner about hearing God’s voice in everyday living and hearing him in silence. It ran along the lines of considering the lilies.

Buechner writes, “God speaks to us, I would say, much more often than we realize or than we choose to realize. Before the sun sets every evening, he speaks to each of us in an intensely personal and unmistakable way. His message is not written out in starlight, which in the long run would make no difference; rather it is written out for each of us in the humdrum, helter-skelter events of each day . . .”

God isn’t giving us new revelation like the cult leaders state. He is personalizing and repeating words he has written in the Bible. He is helping us worship him in the everyday. As Buechner explains it, “. . . it is precisely into the nonsense of our days that God speaks to us words of great significance . . . be brave . . . be merciful . . . feed my lambs . . . press on toward the goal.”

Isn’t the core problem with so many Christians that we ignore this voice, that we refuse to worship our Lord in the freeflowing banality of living? Isn’t our struggle with all the things we take for granted? We want the Lord to bless us with ease and money or other comforts. We want to see to the end of the road and ride there in style. We don’t want to worship the Lord by dealing with leaks or stupid people who need to get right with the Lord.

Let’s consider the lilies today, and be brave in the face of plumbing problems. Let’s listen to people today, and be slow to speak or become angry. Let’s show mercy and avoid worry. Because God is speaking to us now.