Yesterday morning, I had a long leisurely visit with my friend, Hoan, over coffee and a light breakfast. Hoan was born in Vietnam some 65 years ago and you pronounce his name like the Hispanic “Juan.” He and I get together every few months and have been doing so for probably seven or eight years. We normally have a free-ranging discussion about life, our families, our jobs, our travels and our common faith. Hoan is a Christian who speaks English, Vietnamese and French and has one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard. He is a humble man with a huge smile, who by all measures, should not have survived the fall of South Vietnam, nor his eventual horrific escape in a small boat into the South China Sea. Compared with Hoan, I’ve never had any problems.

Among the many the topics we touched upon in our visit was that of hearing God. Interestingly, this same topic came up a week ago in another discussion within a larger group of about 30 people. It’s certainly not a topic that graces your normal conversation, say in usual social settings. “Hey, has anyone here heard God recently? Yeah? Well, what did he say?”

Some of you of a certain age may remember the movie, “Oh God!”with John Denver as the everyman supermarket manager and George Burns as God. I really enjoyed that movie. Who wouldn’t? The simple premise is that God (the elderly and wonderful Burns) decided to actually speak with Denver and even show up physically. Denver, of course, didn’t buy that it was actually God speaking with him until Burns proved it in some hilarious ways. Then, Denver wanted to know why God was talking with him, just a regular guy, to which Burns basically said, “why not?” Furthermore, Denver was to be his messenger to the world. This was not received well by Denver. Not at all. Talk about being reluctant, but God couldn’t have cared less, basically responding, “You’re my guy and you’re on my team. Get over it!”

Of course, it’s quite an entertainment industry that seeks to show how God communicates with mortals. Movies and TV shows. Angels acting out all sorts of scenarios. I even saw mention that there’s one new show where a devil and angel are basically in cahoots. Whatever.

But, when you cut away the fluff and get down to it, do we really believe God speaks and, if so, what’s the deal? How, when, why, and so forth?

Now, I’ve read books on this and have been in more than a few discussions so this is not a new topic. It’s also not an easy one to unpack.

Hoan and I were speaking about this, in the context of how or whether God answers prayers and in what way he gives us direction, especially when we’re facing complicated stuff.

I am not of the school of God as Genie in the Bottle. Apparently, in the Vietnam of the early 1960s, there were no cartoons of such genies, nor a TV show like I Dream of Genie. So, of course, my mention of this resulted in a kind of blank stare from my friend. Hoan hadn’t heard of genies but he’s a quick learner when I explained the “Master, you get three wishes for releasing me from captivity,” offer from the very relieved big blue creature.

I bring this up because many people, Christians and otherwise, think God exists to give us what we think we need. But the problem arises that, when we ask him for such and such, he frequently doesn’t respond. Silence. No fix to the problem, which can either be simply annoying or deeply troubling, especially when we or our loved ones face deep crises.

I had a friend who I haven’t seen in some years now, a highly educated and committed Christian, who was facing a pretty big problem, and he was relentless in asking God to show him signs on how to fix the problem. My friend was really suffering and became extremely upset at the continuation of the problem, with no apparent response from God. It didn’t seem to make him disbelieve in God but it surely made him angry and bitter. I once asked him, after a great deal of hearing about this, whether he kind of like expected one of those huge electronic signs that hang over the freeways to light up with his name and some sort of message from God. He didn’t take offense with the question because I asked it in a fairly compassionate tone but he answered, in essence, “yes.”

I don’t think that’s how God normally communicates.

But, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t communicate with us frequently, which can be quite an extraordinary thing.

I actually met Hoan after hearing from God.

Now, many of you who know me, or have followed these ramblings, know that I claim I actually heard, in full audio mode, God’s voice. I’ve testified to that privately and publicly many times. That was a truly earth-shattering event and I can understand the plight of John Denver. When God (you know, that God) breaks through all of reality and speaks directly into your left ear as if he was right next to you and a little bit taller, it’s a game changer.

And, it’s also very rare.

Fortunately, God finds a number of other ways to “speak” to and with us.

And, one of those times happened when I met Hoan.

Some of you have heard this story but it’s always good in the re-telling. One of the reasons it’s a good story (that happens to be completely true) is that it shows how God can show up completely unexpectedly and the results can be astonishing.

Picture this: Several hundred of us gathering in the Vista branch of the San Diego Superior Court’s main Jury Room. Most of you have had that experience. It’s early in the morning and we’ve all answered the call to serve, a decent number of whom are more than a little reluctant. But, the law is the law and duty is duty (sixth amendment to the Constitution and all of that). I got there early this time, having taken the day off of my job as a school district assistant superintendent. I found an electric outlet on the wall immediately adjacent to me so I could plug in my laptop and get some work done. I went about inserting my ear buds and settled down for the requisite wait.

Shortly afterwards, a man sat down in the chair immediately to my left. Like everyone else, we listened to the usual spiel, filled out the forms and then got about our business of waiting. He and I engaged in no small talk. I had the wall to my right and a strange man to my left, a laptop and earbuds, and a pile of work to get done.

A little time went by and then I “heard” a voice.

Now, this is where things can get dicey.

It would be right for some to ask me to define “heard.” To which I’d have to honestly say it wasn’t a real voice (not like that one time) but it was rather like a thought out of nowhere. A thought that had no connection with what I was focused on. It wasn’t like a “daydream” thought such as, “I’d really, really rather be somewhere else than here.” No, it was a completely out-of-context thought. I would say it was mostly like a message. And, there was nothing ambiguous about it.

I heard exactly “talk to him.”

 Yes, that’s right. “Talk to him.”

Admittedly, this was not the first time I’d had something like this happen to me since I’d surrendered in 2005. For the record, I was not unfamiliar with the concept of how God can communicate and I’d been the welcome beneficiary of some of that communication. However, I don’t remember hearing such a direct message telling me to do a very specific thing at that specific moment. This was something a bit different.

Feeling that I could easily ignore the message as, well, men don’t just approach strange men for no reason (plus I was busy), I chose to do just that. Ignore it and keep working on my laptop.

Funny thing, though, about God. He’s not easily dissuaded when he gets his mind up. (Ask John Denver.)

So, a few minutes later, here it came again, “Talk to him.”

This time, I probably sighed a bit and said back, in my mind’s reply, something to the effect, “I don’t want to. He’ll probably think I’m weird and I just don’t feel like it.” And I went back to work.

You know what happened next. A few minutes later, here it was again. Relentless. “Talk to him.”

At this point, I knew I was trapped. I mean who, after all, gets such specific directions out of the blue to stop what they’re doing and change course? I also knew I was left with no choice. I didn’t doubt it was from God because it fit the formula. Perhaps more on that later.

So, reluctantly, I turned to this strange man who had made no overtures to try to engage with me, who had been sitting quietly (perhaps reading, if my memory serves). And, I said, “Hey, how are you?”

I honestly don’t remember what exactly transpired in the next few moments but I do know that two hours later, I had heard his life story which completely captivated me on more levels than I can describe here. And, by the time we eventually parted company, we had one another’s contact information and the rest is history. We’ve been close ever since and count each other as one of the great blessings in our lives.

All because I wasn’t quite obstinate enough to continue ignoring God.

You can’t make this stuff up.

This wasn’t the last time something like this has happened to me. And, I’ve never, never been disappointed for having obeyed, even when I’ve done so reluctantly.

In my follow-up, I hope to dive a bit deeper into what’s happening in situations like this and how, perhaps, we can pay closer attention to how it can effect our lives.