Just as orchestra members need to pay attention to the director, Christians need to pay attention and listen to God. (Did I just compare orchestra directors to God? Forgive me!) Communication with God needs to be a two-way connection. We shouldn’t just be ‘playing our part’ and coming to God with all our problems and complaints, but never listening to what He has to say to us in return. And sometimes we need a little help from another person (like an orchestra director) telling us to pay attention, or to notice that there is a problem.
The great prophet Samuel had to have a little help at first too. When he was still a young boy, God began to speak to him, but Samuel didn’t understand. His mentor, Eli, had to help him out a bit. Eli and Samuel both slept in the temple, and Eli was quite old by this time, so Samuel often acted as a servant to him, helping him out whenever he could. In the middle of the night, Samuel was awakened by someone calling for him, so he immediately ran to Eli to see what the old priest needed. The story is fun to read, so you can read the whole chapter yourself, but the crucial point is in verse 9:
So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’”
1 Samuel 3:9a
Oh, to hear the voice of God calling for us! He does not often speak audibly to us in these days, but He still speaks to us through the Bible. Everything we need to know is there, if we will only study it, and pay attention to what we read. We need to say to Him, in our hearts, ‘Speak, Lord!’
But sometimes we can be paying attention, and still not understand what is happening. Nothing sounds right, nothing makes sense, and we are rather lost. Thus, God also gives us fellow Christians, to help explain what we hear and read, to give examples from their own lives, and to encourage us when we have doubts about what God is really saying to us.
Sometimes, we may feel like we only have a small part written out for us, and have no way to understand how our part fits in with everyone else. So sometimes, we need to confer with and listen to a fellow trumpet player to figure out what measure we should be playing (or, in non-musical terms: listen to a fellow Christian to figure out God’s will in a given situation). Sometimes we need an orchestra director (or Christian leader) prodding us to pay attention. Sometimes we need an elder telling us that God is calling. It’s hard work to listen! Sometimes we even have to stop playing our own horn in order to hear what else is going on around us.