A Norvell Note

August 24, 2025 – Vol. 29 No. 31

The Voice of My Heart

Sometimes when I am writing, I get stuck. My mind is full of thoughts and images of people and situations, but I cannot transfer those thoughts and images to paper, a computer screen, or verbal expressions. I sip my coffee, pray for words, pause, and look around the room. I listen to music, maybe pet the cat, stare out the window, and wait. Usually, the words come.

The same thing often happens when I am praying. Faces and places hover above, around, and inside me. So, I sit quietly with my thoughts and pray, “Father, hear what’s in my heart.” He does.  

Fernando Ortega sings, “I prayed with the voice of my heart. And He heard my cry.” (I Stretched Out My Hands)

While gathered with people I love and long to be with, we have sung, Listen to Our Hearts. I’m confident He has. 

While sitting with a troubled soul or standing in a room with a family trying to make sense of the passing of a loved one, I remind them and myself of these words. “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our expectant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” (Romans 8:26-28, The Message)

Father, thank You for understanding when we don’t have words and for listening to the voice of our hearts. 

I love you.

Tom

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