Shepherds and Smoke Alarms, by Rick Stevens, Fiat Ventures

“Shepherds and Smoke Alarms” by Rick Stevens, Fiat Ventures

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”

A few years ago, the TV news documentary show Dateline NBC ran an episode about smoke alarms in the home.  The show pointed out the ineffectiveness of regular alarms in waking sleeping children after activation.  They went on to feature companies that manufactured smoke alarms that had human voices instead of shrill, piercing noises.

The human voice alarms were only marginally more effective in waking sleeping children when tested during fire drills.  However, when doctors and researchers from a prominent children’s hospital modified the alarms to speak the child’s name in the parent’s voice, the success rate increased dramatically.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus talks about the sheep that hear His familiar voice and follow Him because they know Him.  It’s no surprise that, as children, we hear and listen to our parents’ voice and instinctively respond. Parent’s voices are much more prevalent than any other voices around us so it is natural that we become familiar and trusting.

However, as we grow older and into our teen years, we no longer instinctively act upon our parents voices.  Not that we trust them or love them any less, its just that there we find ourselves spending a lot more time around other voices that compete for our attention.   Friends, teachers, coaches, TV and movie personalities, and popular musicians are just a few of the vocal influences that are present in our lives.

It is important that we carefully filter these messages and get most familiar with the ones that exert the most positive influences.  Usually these are the voices that speak reason and love and are truly concerned with our wellbeing.   Listening is a skill and it takes patience and discipline to tune out the bad to hear and process the good.

A good example of this is listening part of prayer.  We can trust and love Jesus by praying to Him frequently but to truly follow Him, we have to hear His voice, just like the sheep in the Gospel.  This is the part of prayer where we sit in silence contemplating, reflecting, and meditating upon being in His care.  So next time you pray, be sure to set aside some quiet time to block out all the noise in your life and listen so you can hear His voice and become familiar with it…..

……And remember to change your smoke alarm batteries every six months!