You talkin’ to me?!

Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.
—1 Samuel 3:9

"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?"

So goes the line made famous by Robert De Niro in the movie Taxi Driver. However it isn’t just a line in a movie. No this is a fundamental question of life and any who live it… Who is talking to me? Of all the voices you hear in the course of a day who is really TALKING to YOU?

You go about your day doing your best to help those in your charge, to lead the best you can and make the best decisions possible all the while building the folk up and treating them as you would wish to be treated. Your focus is on them. You set aside the matters of your own heart in order to be present and do your best for them. Yet sometimes in the midst of your caring, serving, meeting, or working, they say something that seems to connect, to go to the heart of the matter you had been holding in for so long yet they knew nothing about it at all.


You talkin’ to me?

At times you go about life on auto pilot. Same thing, same people, same kind of medical issues, same kind of patient requests, same opportunities, same challenges. Summed up in the resigned saying: Same old, same old. In the midst of it all you do a lot of talking, a lot of reacting and in the midst of it all, someone breaks through with a word, song, a look, a smile and you ask…

You talkin’ to me?

You know when you hear it because you pause with the surprised realization that you just heard what you needed to hear most. Perhaps it was a reassuring word, or perhaps one of direction or support. It might have been a word of hope or affirmation, even a word of insight to a situation you were wrestling with. Whatever the case, when you heard, your heart was stirred, quickened, moved to the point where you reflected for a moment and wondered…

You talkin’ to me?

Take time to be present to the people of this day. Listen to them and hear them for indeed it is often through others that God speaks a word to you. You know it when you hear it so savor it and remember you are not alone. God watches over and speaks to us every day. The real question is not; "You talkin’ to me?", but, "Am I listening for you?"

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
—Isa 30:20-21