Auopia

I am so sorry I have not kept this blog alive. I was involved in a blog elsewhere, and then FaceBook. I will try to transfer my blogging here. To get us going again, here is a note I wrote for FaceBook. I hope you are blessed by it.

I have had friends, teachers, pastors and professors tell stories in which God called them by their last names. Sort of rough, like a drill sergeant or a tough trainer in a movie or something. And sometimes I have imagined God talking to me in that manner: "hey Wolf, get it in gear!" or some similar spurring on.

And of late - for the past three years - my circumstances have been pushing me about like one of those cars in the Autopia at a Disney park. You know how those things work - they have a little freedom or play in the steering so you get the feeling that you are actually driving the little car, but if you get just a little off course, BANG! the rail built into the center of the road jerks you back on track with a suddenness that reminds you that you are not really in charge. You are going to go where the thing takes you, and you are going to get there in the exact manner the builder of the ride designed. In fact if you look at the pavement in one of those rides you can see the dark areas left by the thousands and thousands of cars which have gone before you - and you see that you are not getting one INCH off the same course every one of them traveled.

And yet - as my little car has been bounced around - I have finally begun to hear the voice of our heavenly Father. And he doesn't order me around. He doesn't sound like a drill Sergent, an upset schoolmaster or even a rough coach trying to wring a last burst of energy out of a tired player. He doesn't even sound like ME, getting down on myself.

You know what He sounds like? Like a loving friend who has a special name for me - a very gentle loving name only he knows. And his voice is never far away, never demanding, never judging. And if it wasn't for that voice, calling out that loving (encouraging) pet name, I would not feel like it was even worth traveling this road any more. Right now, if my own voice was the only one I could hear, I would be in darkest despair. But I hear His voice calling me things like "son," or "beloved," or "useful tool in my hand," or "of great value," or "worth dying for," other things that I would never believe if it were not uttered by one who is and always has been so completely dependable, believable, and who loves me so completely that he has a special track designed just for MY little car.

Do you know what He sounds like?

Do you?