I don’t know how many times the Lord is going to have to teach me this before I finally stop questioning it so much, but apparently I’m still learning.
I have had this happen over and over in my life where somebody’s name just comes into my head. No big spiritual moment. No voice. Nothing dramatic. I’m just doing whatever I’m doing and suddenly I’m thinking about someone I haven’t talked to in a while.
And I’ll do what I always do. I’ll think, “That’s random.” Then I keep going.
A few minutes later, they’re still there.
Then I start arguing with myself about whether I should text them. I don’t want to be weird. I don’t really have anything to say. Maybe I’ll do it later. I can come up with plenty of reasons to leave it alone.
Then their name comes back again.
Alright, Lord. I hear You.
So I send some incredibly profound message like, “Hey, you okay?”
And there have been enough times where the answer has come back and stopped me cold.
“I was literally just praying.”
“You have no idea how much I needed this.”
“I’m having a really hard day.”
Those moments always get me, because five minutes earlier I was sitting there trying to explain the whole thing away.
My bad, Lord.
I think that is really what this song is about.
I’ve had this happen in other ways too. I’ve felt like I needed to stay somewhere a little longer when I was ready to leave. I’ve felt like I needed to call someone even though I had no idea what I was going to say. I’ve changed where I was going or felt like I needed to be somewhere, and then later found out why.
One of the experiences I have never forgotten happened on my mission.
My companion and I were trying to figure out where we should go the next day. There was a street that kept coming to us. We didn’t know why. We marked it and went there.
The next day we met a family who told us they had prayed that morning for God to send someone to help them.
That still messes with me when I think about it.
They prayed that morning.
We had already picked the street the night before.
God knew where we needed to be before they even prayed the prayer.
And we had no idea.
That is probably the part that has become more meaningful to me as I’ve gotten older. A lot of the time, when the Lord is using us to help somebody, we have absolutely no clue what is happening on the other side of it.
I might be worried that I’m going to bother somebody with a text. They might be asking God to please let somebody remember them.
I might be trying to get out the door because I’m busy. Somebody else might finally be ready to tell somebody what they have been carrying.
I might be sitting there wondering whether a thought came from God, and He already knows exactly why that thought came.
Then every once in a while He lets me see enough of the other side that I realize what was happening.
And that is humbling.
Because I usually walk away thinking, I really should know this by now.
I should recognize this better.
I should probably spend a little less time trying to figure out whether I understand the prompting and a little more time acting on it.
That is where “I Hear It Now” came from.
It is really me admitting that I have seen this happen enough times that I don’t have much excuse left.
When somebody comes to my mind and they stay there, I want to get better at listening.
When I feel like I should stay, I want to stay.
When I feel like I should reach out, I want to reach out.
And I know myself well enough to know I’m still going to overthink some of these. I’ll probably talk myself in circles again. I’ll probably have another moment where I finally see what the Lord was doing and think, “Seriously? You had to tell me three times?”
But I do believe I’m getting better at hearing Him.
I have a testimony that God knows His children individually. He knows what they are praying about. He knows who is hurting. He knows who is close enough to help, and He knows how to put one person into the heart and mind of another.
I’ve been lucky enough to see that happen too many times to call it coincidence.
And I think one of the great privileges of following Christ is getting to occasionally find out that you were part of somebody else’s answer to prayer, even though you had no idea that was what was happening when you started moving.
So this song is really a reminder to myself.
I hear it now, Lord.
I know that feeling.
Put them on my heart.
I’ll follow You.
