Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (I Samuel 3:9 NIV).

Right after God called me out of counseling in 2001, I pretty much stopped sleeping at night. Remembering Samuel’s nighttime visitations, I went downstairs one night and said, “Okay, God, you have my undivided attention. What do you want?” When no immediate answer came, I noticed some books on the end table that my Aunt Lydia had given me almost a year before–her very old, drab favorite books.

I saw that one of them was by an author whose name I recognized, Lettie Cowman, so I picked it up and began to read. It was Lettie’s account of how God had called her and her husband, Charles, to Japan exactly 100 years earlier in February of 1901. I was immediately drawn in as I read about how this couple had given up everything to answer God’s call.

 A few days later, I checked the Internet to find that only 1% of the Japanese people knew Christ. My heart was broken not only at the small percentage of Christians in Japan but by the fact that, although Charles and Lettie had given their all 100 years earlier, still less than 1% of the people in Japan knew Jesus. That statistic haunted me. And then I remembered why I was reading this book and my question, “What do you want God?”

“God,” I breathed, “surely you aren’t trying to tell me that you want us to go to Japan?” And then, “Surely, you wouldn’t ask me to leave my granddaughter?” I had asked God what He wanted, but as I listened to the silence, I wondered–did I really want to know?

Father, enable us to hear what you’re saying even when we really don’t want to know. Amen.

(Devotional adapted from Homespun Faith, Reflections from the Seasons of Life, copyright 2014 Daisy Beiler Townsend. Available as paperback or e-book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Xulon Press. There are Links on this website on the Where to Buy Homespun Faith and Sarah’s Legacy page. Locally at Fresh Grounds, M & M Grocery, Penn Alps in Grantsville, Maryland, or from me 724-373-8445.)