God's "still, small voice"

A bit late with my daily posting today...

My thought for the day comes from some contemplation on Scripture at the Internet Monk on the Christian cliche, God's "still, small voice" from 1 Kings 19:11-13, where the prophet Elijah, after doing some miracles and being chased/persecuted for several days, finds himself at the same mountain where Moses encountered God face-to-face.  Depressed, frustrated, and lonely, Elijah complains about his plight to God, whereupon God responds with fabulous displays of power - a mighty wind, a powerful earthquake, and a raging fire, but "the Lord was not in the _______."  Then after these, there is a still, small voice.

The common church interpretation/teaching of this passage is usually something along the lines of, we need to tune out the noise of this world to listen to God's still, small voice for direction, comfort, and assurance.  However, the article writer does an interesting job of presenting an alternative perspective: rather than revealing a way that God speaks to us, the passage is instead a story about how God will typically not use spectacular displays of power to give us a "mountaintop experience" when we're depressed and down about life circumstances.  Instead, it is "a call to simply go back to work, doing what God has called us to do, relying on his promises; trusting that the work is his and not ours to define and achieve."

I appreciated the challenge in the reading to consider context and the bigger story more deeply rather than locking in a particular phrase and adopting it as my own, and this particular call to go back to work that God has called me to do, trusting that the work is his and not mine, is an encouragement in the midst of what has been a difficult year.