Listening to the “Still, Small Voice”

I was told a good story recently that I would like to share. It was told to me by my business partner, who has been a really good partner and friend for many years. He is one of the most selfless, giving, and honest persons that I know. He volunteers one night a week to drive an ambulance for the volunteer Rescue Squad. He and his wife spend a week in Haiti every year with a group of doctors administering medical care to a region that has no medical facilities. He is not a Christian Scientist, but he knows that we are, and he respects that tremendously. His wife is a Roman Catholic, and when he does go to church he goes to church with her to support her.

One Sunday he and his wife were at their summer house, which is out on the end of Long Island on the Long Island Sound. He woke up and got a message very clearly that he shouldn’t go with her to church that morning, but that he should go out into the water in his boat. He has a little fishing boat that he loves. He says that whenever he goes out on the water, it is his time to commune with God. He wasn’t sure why he was getting this message, because he hadn’t planned to go fishing, and it was stormy; but he did go because it came to him so strongly that this was what he should do.

He took his boat out into the storm. It was windy, and the waves were very high. He was out there, not knowing why, and he was the only boat out there, or so he thought. He had not gone very far when he saw something in the water. He went over to look at it and saw a man in the water waving his arms wildly, clearly in trouble. His kayak had taken on water and was sinking. The man had on a lifejacket, but he didn’t know how to swim, so he was scared to death. He was having great difficulty.

So Tom, my partner, went over and pulled him up out of the water. The guy couldn’t move, he was so distraught. Tom pulled his kayak out of the water and got it into his boat. When the man was finally able to talk, he said he was from Eastern Europe visiting friends in the United States. The man said he had been out with his friends in the kayak fishing, the storm had taken him away, and he got lost. He did not know where he was and couldn’t get back. Tom then took him back to where he had come from. On the way, they saw his friends, who were very happy to see him. They had thought their friend was gone forever. The fellow was deeply grateful to Tom for having saved his life.

After Tom told me this story he said, “Isn’t that the craziest thing?” I laughed and said, “No it is not crazy. That is how God works.” I told him it was to his credit that God called him to save this fellow, and that he listened and obeyed. I encouraged him to tell this story to his children and grandchildren on the importance of listening to that still small voice and obeying it. Then I chuckled and told him, as Jesus said, God made him a fisher of men. He laughed.

Here is a man who leads a very moral life, very unselfed, and willing to help anyone at any time. He was the right person to save this fellow. He got the call and obeyed it. It is Christianly scientific to listen to that still small voice and obey, and he did. There is a God and He is good! God does take care of us when we listen.