Simple, personal stories remind us God works through everyday life

Published: October 2, 2004

By Dr. Linda Webster

This Sunday’s readings are so wonderfully noisy and brash. We’ve got cries and strife in Habakkuk, joyful singing in the responsorial psalm while listening for the Lord’s voice, and testimony to the Lord in second Timothy. These are not quiet, introspective readings that ask us to think deeply or to pray humbly or to sit by the side of life’s road.

These are lusty readings that are packed with emotion and power and action — really disconcerting stuff. Because there are two tough issues here: one is how to make the noise joyfully and productively, and the other is how to listen so that the Lord’s message is heard and understood. Making noise for the Lord is pretty scary.

The risk is in opening up yourself to criticism or ridicule for taking a stand and articulating your faith. Last February, several members of the St. Mark Parish in Monticello spoke about their faith in front of a microphone, making quite a noise as we recorded a compact disc. They voiced their fears and their joys; their understanding of Christ among us and the Lord of their childhoods; their understanding — and misunderstandings — of this universal Church we call Catholic.

Our children pronounced traditional prayers with verve and confidence; there’s no mistaking that they are in favor of speaking out fearlessly. But there were so many others whose stories were not told; others who felt that their stories and their views of faith wouldn’t really make a difference or wouldn’t seem profound when recorded.

When I originally asked for volunteers for this recording project, I distributed a flier after Mass asking parishioners to consider allowing me to record their thoughts on faith, the more mundane the better. I did note that if anyone had actually experienced a conversion experience on the road to Damascus, Ga., that we’d fit it into the project, but that I wanted — more than anything — the thoughts, prayers, and stories of an everyday nature.

Since we live our lives out one day at a time, there really is very little use for the amazing and the dramatic as inspiration in daily living but we’re so inured to the dramatic and the impossible through the media that it’s difficult to imagine that a single voice can be profound when expressing simple thoughts.

In fact, if one expects the dramatic and the miraculous on a regular basis, wouldn’t one miss the blooming of a single flower? The first words of a tiny child? The opportunity to hear the whispered and gentle words of the Savior as we move through the tasks of each day?

By missing some stories, we’ve missed the opportunity to listen quietly to how God interacts with each of us differently; how we are touched by his loving hand every minute of every day; how we are all brothers and sisters in our shared hopes, and dreams, and prayers, and even in our misadventures.

However, the stories on the CD remind us that we are not alone in our hopes and fears, joys and despair. That God’s voice is heard through one another — that we are to sing and cry out and testify to the best of our abilities, even when we’ve been all day in the field and our voices are weakened with exhaustion. We must speak so that we might listen to hear our Lord’s voice.

Dr. Linda Webster, campus minister for the University of Arkansas at Monticello, has a bachelor’s degree in theology from St. Gregory University in Shawnee, Okla. This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic Oct. 2, 2004. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.