As God’s children, we know God calls us to be someone “when we grow up,” but sometimes we can be just as confused or misguided as Calvin was.

Whether we are considering the universal call to holiness and mission, the discernment of our permanent vocations or simply the everyday invitations to follow God’s will, we often wish God would be more direct, obvious or lovingly “in our face.” It can feel as though he’s only teasing us with a glimpse of his will or remaining silent and hidden.

While the Bible contains many, many examples of God directly communicating to people, one of my favorites is in the First Book of Samuel (3:4-10). In the middle of the night, while lying in the house of the Lord, Samuel hears God calling his name. He mistakenly assumes it’s Eli because Scripture says Samuel did not yet know the Lord. Eli shoos him back to bed and this repeats itself a few times. Finally, Eli realizes what is happening and instructs Samuel to say these wonderful and eternal words: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

While this may seem far out of reach or irrelevant to our lives today, Samuel’s disposition contains important lessons for those of us who consciously yearn to hear God’s voice. First, we need to get to know Jesus, spend time with him and quietly listen for him to speak. Ironically, we may keep asking Jesus to speak but we don’t stop talking in order to hear him. We talk at him, but don’t allow him to talk to us. Especially when it comes to big life decisions such as the discernment of our vocation, we must learn to listen patiently, expectantly and without preconceived notions of how he should call us.

This month, spend some time intentionally listening for God’s call for your life – in both big and small matters – and begin each time with Samuel’s simple prayer, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” Let’s see what the Lord is calling us to be as we “grow up” (hint: it’s probably not a caveman!).