by Jay Morgetron

Created on: February 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 19, 2007

I've heard several people in my church say recently, "If you want to make God laugh just tell him your plans." I'm pretty sure I've been making God fall on the floor in laughter for over 30 years. If God sent me an email, it would probably read LOL! LOL! LOL! ROFL!

Throughout my life, I've always had a voice in my head that gives really good advice. Many times in my life, I have ignored that smart little voice. Why? Because, as a human being, I think I know better than the voice, or I think it would feel better, or be more fun to NOT listen to the voice. But I can tell you that the times that I have listened to the voice and gone

with, what I used to call "my instincts" or "my intuition," positive things have happened for me. Conversely, when I have gone against that advice in my mind, things tend to fall apart pretty quickly.

I'm part of an email study group within my church. Somehow, during one of the mailings, the topic of listening for God's voice came up and so, my response, of course, was to start whining about how I've never heard the voice of God. I've met so many people, who have spoken about hearing God's voice, following His advice and being blessed as a result. When I hear about this, I wonder, what makes these people so special? Why aren't I special? I WANT TO BE SPECIAL!

This sparked an on-line conversation and it turned me into a rather contemplative person for a spell. It was through this contemplation that I began to actively seek God's voice. I actually started listening for it. It wasn't too long after this that I heard something, (which is good because God knows that I'm not always the most patient at waiting!)

At the time of the aforementioned on-line conversation, I was finishing up a degree and was getting ready to complete my thesis project. I was in school and we were having a brainstorming session. For my project, I was required to develop a program, which brought multiple art forms to a community in which I was member.

As a teacher, my first instinct was to think of something I could do for my school. However, as I wrote down my ideas, something new kept popping into my brain. There was a voice, NOT UNFAMILIAR, mind you, clearly speaking to
me within my own mind, feeding me ideas:

"Visual Arts club *for the church,* a literary magazine *for the church,* an oral history project *for the church.*"

I said a little prayer, right there, in the middle of the classroom. I asked, "Is that really You God?" And the response was, "Listen."

"Naw," I thought.

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