Was there a mom like Hannah or perhaps a
special religious mentor like Eli near this fellow? The words that are sometimes
attributed to Eduardo J. Lango suggest that he did have a special mother or a
faithful tutor, prompting him to say “I’ll Be Somewhere, Listening” sometime
during the 20th Century. He’s anonymous otherwise, at least to you
and me. Was there something extraordinary about his ear (more unusual than the
one shown here), or something about his listening ability that allowed him a greater
perception than others around him? All one can say is that he was receptive, a
willing tool with an openness to what the Holy One might say to him. His words
have echoes of what a prophet-judge said and did centuries earlier as boy, as
he was ushered into service in His kingdom. There must have been an epilogue in
Eduardo’s story, a postscript that relates what happened in the time that
followed his response to the voice he heard. We’ll hear about it someday, but
for now that part is hidden.
Eduardo J. Lango has only his name and his
words in “I’ll Be Somewhere…” available for our examination, but maybe what he authored
gives us the essentials. We might deduce that Eduardo was someone with his
spiritual antennae deployed in active mode consistently. Some versions of his
poetry comprise three or four verses, but the refrain says no less than six
times that he planned to be listening, in addition to ‘I’ll be listening’ occupying
the last line of every verse. So, he evidently wanted that to be very clear. Whatever
else might have been true about him, Eduardo wanted to be within earshot of
God, convinced that He would speak his name. If he felt, as his biblical
ancestor Samuel did when he was but a boy (1 Samuel 3), Eduardo did not want to
be caught napping when He called out for him. Had his mother committed him in
service to God, the way that Hannah did Samuel, because she perceived that his
birth was a divine response to a barren mother? Could Eduardo likewise point to
a spiritual guide, as Samuel did toward the priest Eli, the one who did in fact
identify the Lord’s voice for the boy and direct him to answer the Holy One
when He called a fourth time? It would be a pretty special bond between Samuel
and Eli that would be tested, for the Lord gave the boy a message about his
mentor and his house that was pretty grim. To his credit, Eli did not blame his
young apprentice, although he and his own two sons would all die ignominiously years
later (1 Sam. 4) to fulfill the message Samuel had heard. Was there something forbidding
about a message that Eduardo heard too? It would say something pretty
interesting about Mr. Lango if indeed he eagerly listened for God when a
downbeat message was part of the deal. How closely might you or I listen if God
told us something that was pretty difficult to hear?
Could it be that He needs to call out
several times for those servants upon whom He can really depend, because the
task is so often a difficult one? Eduardo Lango might have been one of those
people, but we’ll have to wait to know for sure. One thing that Eduardo tells
us though, as he writes in one of his verses, is that I should be glad. Eduardo
must have been glad (v.2), knowing that God still was speaking to him. What would
it be like, on the other hand, if He stopped speaking to you and me? If I were
abandoned, all alone in the world, could anything besides that be more sad? Maybe
Eduardo considered that too, but decided that He doesn’t stop calling out;
instead, maybe I choose to stop listening at times. Is your ear tuned in to His
frequency today?
See the following site for all verses and
the author’s name: https://hymnary.org/text/when_he_calls_me_i_will_answer#Author
See this site for the song’s attribution
to the author, who is nonetheless virtually anonymous: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/l/a/n/lango_ej.htm
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