The Distress Call She Mistook for Static

In 2019, Coast Guard Petty Officer Third Class Maria Reyes was three weeks into her first posting at Station Cape Disappointment in Washington State when she heard it — a faint, rhythmic pulse buried in the static of Channel 16. She adjusted the squelch, assumed it was atmospheric interference, and went back to her logbook.

It came again twenty minutes later. Same pattern. She noted it and moved on.

The third time, Chief Petty Officer Dan Halloran leaned over her shoulder. He had been monitoring from across the room. "Reyes," he said quietly. "That's not static. That's someone keying a mic who can't speak. Someone's in trouble and they're trying to reach us."

She froze. The signal had been there all along — repeating, persistent, patient. She simply hadn't known what she was hearing.

Halloran showed her how to triangulate. Within the hour, they located a capsized fishing vessel. Two fishermen were pulled from the Columbia River bar alive.

In 1 Samuel 3, young Samuel hears a voice three times in the darkness of the tabernacle. Each time he runs to Eli, certain the old priest called him. It takes Eli — weathered, failing, but still wise enough to recognize the sacred — to tell him, "It is the Lord."

Sometimes God's voice comes not as thunder but as a persistent whisper we mistake for background noise. We need the Elis in our lives, mentors seasoned in faith, to help us recognize that the voice calling our name has been calling all along. The question is whether we will finally answer: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."