The Still Small Voice

Today I went with my wife and children to a local “fun” place where we could go bowling.  I was struck by the intensity of it all—hundreds of arcade with their sounds and artificial lights constantly blaring at you, flashing neon lights in the bowling alleys, loud up-tempo music over all the speakers, and several enormous big screen TVs in front of the bowling alley forcing you (if you wanted to bowl) to stare at a simultaneous mixture of football and bizarre music videos.  Do we really need to be bombarded in so much stimulation and entertainment just to play a game of bowling?  I don’t think this place was unique—it’s the kind of society we live in now with technology seeking to smother our senses from every direction.  And the artificial sounds and sights and screens and lights that constantly beg for our attention are subtly stealing us away from that which actually nourishes the soul: the Spirit. 

                It’s no wonder that in the scriptures people sought for serenity alone in nature to commune with God.  When Jacob went out on his own he received one of his great revelations as he was alone in the wilderness in Bethel: “He lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.”  After the vision he had he could exclaim: “Surely the Lord is in this place” (Genesis 28:11, 16).  Moses went to “an exceedingly high mountain” where he had one of his great revelations and saw God “face to face” (Moses 1:1-2).  Similarly as Abraham left the wickedness of Ur and traveled throughout Canaan, he wrote, “eternity was our covering and our rock and our salvation,” and on his journeying he received great spiritual manifestations from the Lord who even appeared unto Abraham (Abraham 2:16, 19).  When the Savior needed time to meditate and commune with His Father, He likewise found a place alone in nature: “And when [Jesus] had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46).  Enos went “in the forests” and there received the spiritual manifestations he was looking for (Enos 1:3).  Nephi got direction for building the boat when he “did go into the mount oft” and there pray and learn what the Lord would have him do (1 Nephi 18:3).  The brother of Jared went into the mount Shelem and there had his great manifestation from the Savior (Ether 3:1).  Alma took his people into the place of Mormon where they could escape the city and King Noah.  They learned together and were taught next to a “fountain of pure water” in the midst of a “thicket of small trees” (Mosiah 18:5).  All of these examples show the importance of being alone in a place of peace as we seek to commune with our Father in Heaven.  Of course we can’t always go into the mountains or woods to pray and seek guidance in our lives, but we can find our own “secret places” that shut out all of the modern distractions.  The still small voice is, as has been said, still small, and it takes reverence and calm and patience to learn to hear that voice.  And if we can’t break away from the entertainment of the world we simply won’t hear it.