John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “If God is real, then why don’t I hear his voice?” Or perhaps, “I believe God is real, but he is silent - even uninterested in my life or my problems.”
To wrestle with this question and circle back to today’s scripture, we’re going to broach a touchy subject: sin.
It’s taboo to talk about sin for a lot of reasons. Most people (like myself) don’t like to be told what to do. All the more so, nobody likes to be told that something they are actively doing or have done in the past or want to do in the future, is “wrong.” Sin is an uncomfortable topic and sometimes it can feel easier to just pretend there is no such thing as “sin.” In my opinion, this is largely based on a skewed perception of what sin really is.
The original meaning of the word sin actually had nothing to do with “bad” actions that might have negative spiritual ramifications. Sin originally was a term used in archery and spear throwing to mean that someone “missed the mark”. It actually carries a similar meaning for our spiritual and psychological health!
God designed us for intimate relationship with him, as well as with each other. We are at our best and at our healthiest when we are in line with this purpose for our lives. In God’s wisdom, he provides for us a surprisingly straight-forward understanding of what it takes to be healthy people inside and out. These are the teachings he has provided through the various forms of Divine Revelation (including the specific laws and teachings of the Church).
Alina and I are pretty intentional about not enforcing arbitrary rules on our children. When we tell them, “don’t touch the stove,” it isn’t because we are tyrannical oppressive dictators. It’s because we love them. In a similar way God has provided us with specific, often times challenging rules to live by, all for the purpose of our own well-being and growth.
Circling back to today’s passage, when we do indeed live our lives in conformity to God’s wisdom (rather than our own), it cultivates the health of our relationship with him, and our openness to his voice. God never ceases to reach out to us, but on our end, we have a tendency to keep ourselves at a distance from him out of a fear of what he might ask of us. Sometimes the distance we keep from him is so great that we can’t even hear him anymore. Like an arrow that’s way off from the center of the target. We need to re-calibrate and recenter ourselves.