little whispers

Of all the worship leaders at NPC, he was the best! Mellow yet powerful. Speak to me. God, speak to me. Tommy Walker centered us on listening.

"Pay attention to whispers. The greatest miracle is not the Bible. The miracle is the fact that God still speaks to us. Pay attention to whispers." Bill Hybels, founder of Willow Creek Community Church

Bill shared example of example of life stories where he heard God whispering to him. He listened to the whispers. Things weren't always easy, but in the end, listening to God's promptings changed his life in the most miraculous ways. One of the whispers even saved his life. Were they audible whispers? Are they the hunches we feel in our guts and either listen to or dismiss? How many times have I heard a whisper and simply ignored it or drowned it out with the sound of my own voice?

Bob heard God whisper today. He knows a woman named Sara Wolbrecht who works as a pastor in Northern California. She's here at the National Pastor's Convention. Bob's whisper said that I really needed to meet her. So, he introduced the two of us, we shared lunch at IN-N-OUT and had a great time! I love talking with young female pastors who are getting their ministry started. She was awesome. A confident spirit, great conversationalist, caring heart. We have tons in common. #1. Pastoral Care (and preaching--according to her senior pastor) are her gifts. #2. Turns out, she doesn't like teaching all that much either. We both agreed that we enjoy teaching through preaching or love teaching someone how to do something, but standing up and lecturing isn't where we feel especially gifted. Thank goodness I'm not alone in this. #3. She's a strong F and a strong J. #4. She wears Dansko's. This is the third person who I've met this year who I want to be friends with. Darn distance.

Kendall Payne also performed today. She's a beautiful singer. I actually sang one of her songs during our Kingdomopoly series. You might remember I met her back in September at the National Youth Worker's Convention. She was the only woman performer we saw all weekend on stage here in San Diego. No women preachers, announcers, or other musicians. How sad. Out of 8 sermons given at the conference, not one was done by a woman!

While I was waiting for Bob to pick me up from the convention center, I was waiting by the door, and decided to browse the books a few feet from me. I was on the wrong side of the table, so there were only two books facing my direction. One was titled Child of Divorce, Child of God. I've been talking to a lot of adult children of divorce lately, and felt as though God was whispering for me to pick up the book, read a few pages, and then ultimately run to the counter to buy it quick before Bob arrived. I can't wait to dive into the book, as I feel it was truly a prompting from God. While checking out, the woman at the counter saw where I was from and said, "I'm from Torrance too! I work there!" Small world. Small whispers. It's time to start listening to them more often.