The Silent Listener

Have you ever thought about changing your career?” The question startled me, because I had been thinking about changing my career. It began my journey to becoming a producer and presenter for Adventist Radio London, an evangelistic project seeking to reach the cosmopolitan population of this capital city.

I enjoyed learning radio, but one of the most challenging parts of the transition was having a conversation with an empty studio! I was a teacher; I was used to having a physical audience who would immediately respond, and whose body language would prompt me to adapt whatever I was doing to become more effective. But I couldn’t see who was watching or listening to me now.

As time passed, I found that sometimes people responded to my on-air questions and invitations for prayer requests. I liked interacting with them. But at other times my audience was silent. I often wondered if anyone was listening. Was my show really reaching or helping anyone?

In the silent spells God whispered to me that I must learn to be faithful even when I didn’t see immediate results. If just one person was listening and hearing God’s voice through my program, that was enough. Yet thankfully there were moments of encouragement. We heard from listeners who weren’t Adventists who had found the station by chance. Someone wanted to start a Bible study course I advertised. Others requested the books I was giving away.

That summer my boyfriend and I visited some friends in the north of England. As we wandered the streets of an unfamiliar city, we suddenly noticed someone staring at us from the other side of the road. “What’s he looking at? Is something wrong?” we whispered. Surreptitiously my boyfriend checked over his shoulder, but nobody was behind us.

We began to cross at the pedestrian lights, and the stranger approached us. “Are you from Adventist Radio London?” he asked. “I listen to your programs!”

We laughed and chatted with him, amazed that someone miles away from London would recognize us.

People are listening. People are watching. This is true not only for me, in my admittedly evangelistic role at the radio, but for you too, in both your professional and personal circles. You have a powerful voice and a powerful influence. To quote William J. Toms, “Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some person ever reads.”

I have to ask myself, Am I representing God well? Am I the sort of person whose life will encourage someone to pick up a Bible and look into Christianity or Adventism with an open heart?

Paul writes, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20, NIV). As much as that is a serious responsibility, I find the thought comforting as well.

Sometimes we wonder if our efforts are having any results, but we can know that there is power in being a true ambassador of Jesus. Someone is watching. Someone is listening.