Wednesday, January 14, 2026
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Hearing God
The Lord called to Samuel, who answered.
“Here I am,” Samuel said.
Asleep, suddenly he awakened. What was that? Was it part of my dream?
I lie in bed and fall asleep listening to A Study in Scarlet read by Stephen Fry, and when I wake up he’s still reading. I didn’t set a timer.
Was it Stephen’s voice waking me up? Was there something else? I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on anything. But around me I feel the air moving just a subtle little bit.
No.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. They fly open again. Stephen Fry reads on. Conan-Doyle’s 1887 novel has moved out of London fog to the American west, and Fry’s accent follows. This time I set Audible’s 30 minute timer and settle back into bed. The electric blanket heat is too much, and I turn it off.
“Go back to sleep,” Eli told Samuel, and so he did.
Again the Lord called Samuel.
“Here I am.” Wasn’t that Eli calling me? I hear echoes. “Samuel! Samuel!”
Eli awakens again. “I did NOT call you, Samuel. Please go back to sleep.”
In Utah the Mormons are converging on Lucy and her father John, and their threats drive the couple to escape. Lucy is afraid.
One hears—one hears such dreadful stories about those who oppose the Prophet: something terrible always happens to them.
I don’t want to go to sleep now. But the timer turns off the story and I’m left alone, silent in the dark.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am.
You called me.”
Now Eli understood. God was calling Hannah’s son to be his own. Eli gave the young man instructions.
If you are called again, say “Speak Lord;
Your servant is listening.”
I am getting Samuel mixed up with Brigham Young. Who is the Prophet? I remember scenes from the House of David, where Samuel confronts King Saul like an avenging angel and then retreats from the royal house in fear and trembling. How Samuel’s servant Silas, loyal to Samuel, is tortured and murdered while Samuel searches for, finds in Bethlehem, and anoints Jesse’s son David as the next king. The music in my mind is harsh and frightening.
But the Lord is with Samuel now, and he has nothing to fear.
When Samuel went to sleep on his pallet,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”
Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
The Bible tells God’s stories of his people simply. Often I am left to my own imagination and prayers to fill them out. But God’s love for Samuel, for me, for Brigham Young and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is never in doubt.
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
And he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.
Thus all Israel from Dan to Beersheba
came to know that Samuel was an accredited prophet of the LORD.
Jesus knew the stories. I wonder if he knew the men – Samuel, Moses, Elijah. He inspires me to pray and know whatever and whoever I am given to know as well.
Rising very early before dawn,
Jesus left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
(1 Samuel 3, Psalm 40, John 10, Mark 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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