CAUTION is required when someone tells you God has been talking to him.
Sincerity is possible, and so are motives of exhibitionism, intimidation and mental illness.
A young girl on a television programme in a church asked a clergyman how he began. He said, 'I was called by God.' The sincerity of some clergy is in no doubt, but my instinct is to doubt others. Why could not some be called by themselves? I'm not saying they are dishonest: I mean that they think they have been called by God but it is themselves talking.
How far does the claim to have a direct line to God go? Did God call them to go on holiday or redecorate the vicarage?
An acquaintance, not in holy orders, told me God sets up bargains for him at the supermarket.
That is the comical or pitiful side.
I'm slightly intimidated when a person tells me emphatically and at length God has been talking to him or pointing the way to a well-deserved reward. Often there seems to be an air of defiance about his manner, daring me to disbelieve him. In addition, to imply God talks to
him, but not to me: therefore he's holier than me.
If I have been called by God I keep it to myself, in case I'm wrong. A person might think me immodest.
All of us are confined to the inside of our head, so in the end I have to give a person who cites God the benefit of the doubt.
More to come, on what I feel when a person says, 'I'll pray for you.'
