Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday and Monday, July 19 and 20, 2026
I woke up this morning with a TV clip from long ago in my head: a drill sergeant haranguing a new batch of raw recruits with his barked out, “I can’t HEAR you!”
A rather odd way for me to start the day; usually a song is playing in my mind when I surface from sleep.
But these four words have provided much food for thought, enough that I needed two photos to illustrate what stirred in my mind. (My thanks to my husband, who willingly posed for these photos – the kindest of men!)
I thought about God, and I thought about us, and how we experience hearing each other. I remember so many times in the Psalms when a voice cries out for help, begging God to hear, to pay attention, to answer. Here’s one of the many:
Hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
(Psalm 102:1-2 NIV)
Does God turn His back on us, plug His ears so He won’t be bothered with us? Does He refuse to hear us? If so, we’re sunk! As the song I learned long ago asks, “Where could I go but to the Lord?”
Just as there are many instances in the Psalms when we hear the plea to be heard, there are also many times when the psalmist speaks out in confidence that God is a good listener, unless we are cherishing sin in our hearts. Sin seems to stir up static.
Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
(Psalm 66:16-20)
This last verse reminded me of a quote from David W. Augsburger, a pastor, author, theologian, counselor, and teacher. I had the privilege of hearing him speak once, forty-four years ago, on how to handle conflict. He was a well-respected peacemaker.
Perhaps his most often-quoted sentence is this:
“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.”
Every time I read that (and I have it pinned to my bulletin board so that I see it often), I resolve once again to try to really hear people. I can think of so many, many times in my life when I felt heard, and I definitely felt loved.
Another Augsburger quote which is not as well-known, but follows the same thought is,
“The golden rule of friendship is to listen to others as you would have them listen to you.”
Looking back at my two photos makes me think of how I listen to God. Or not. I have heard myself praying, rather pitifully, “I need to hear from you, God, but please answer in a way that is not painful!” I want to hear what I want to hear! Sometimes I need to check to see if my fingers are figuratively stuck in my ears.
I never see God as a drill sergeant, but I wonder if He sometimes is saying to us, wistfully, “I can’t hear you . . .” As we step out into this brand-new week, we can confide in the One who created us and redeemed us and is coming again for us – and who waits to hear from us.