Through The Silence, I Hear Him

My God is not absent.

A lot of times, people think that God's not in their lives because he hasn't given them what they want, when they want it.  Today in church, my pastor reflected on the last lesson of a series they've been doing called "God Is..." and the goal is to try to sum up Jesus Christ in 30 minutes. Okay, obviously Jehovah cannot be canned into a 30 minute speech... but there are a few very important things I've taken away from the series.

The main, and most vital, lesson about this is that God is always there.  Even when you can't sense him.  You can't hear him.  You can't see him.  As my sister said about this photo: and in the midst of silence, you hear Him most.  She's totally right.  Sometimes in the middle of the storm, it's easy to lose track of his voice.  Sometimes the wind is ripping the things that you've held dear out of your life by the roots and you feel like you'll never get them back.  Sometimes the biting, driving rain pelts your skin so hard that you feel like the pain won't ever end.  For me, sometimes the cold and the lonliness of the winter makes me feel like no one will ever understand what I'm going through.  But sometimes, in those quiet moments when you're alone and there's no one else around, you hear the voice of Jesus Christ whisper to the innermost part of who you are and it suddenly all clicks.  He's been there the whole time, but we really haven't been listening.  Or, maybe we were listening but there were too many distractions preventing us from understanding.

One time, my oldest brother said something to me that hit the nail squarely on the head for where I was at that time in my life.  He told me, "Kim, I know where you are.  You're in a room with seven CD players all blasting music at full impact and you just don't know what to do."  He was right - sometimes I have so much "noise" in my life that I can't really see what God's trying to show me... or, sometimes it's just that I don't want to see.  I know I'm not alone in making that choice, and I'm not ashamed to admit that because it's the truth.  Sometimes what God is requiring of me is the most painful choice I have to make, given my options.  But as I think about who my God really is, I understand that it isn't that God is some angry man in the sky...

The truth about Jesus Christ is that he loves and adores us more than we could ever possibly hope to understand, and he's waiting patiently for us to turn to him and say "Hey God? Can you turn off the music?" We weren't created to endure nonstop heartache, we were created to have the urge to turn to someone to make it all better.  The mistake we make is to turn to people and expect them to provide the band-aids we need.  The solution is to realize that God's band-aid is the only one that will fit.

Another realization I've had is that I don't have to fight my way through life anymore.  Just like an angry, growling pit bull guarding a junk yard, Jesus Christ is prepared to station himself at the door of your heart and protect its precious contents.  He doesn't get distracted by cuts and bruises in a battle.  He sends in his warriors to fight on your behalf so that you don't have to.  Granted, choosing to let Him take over can sometimes be the most painful part of it.  Whether it's your finances, your relationships, your wants and desires and dreams for your future... sometimes you may feel like you know better than He does.  

But, you couldn't be more wrong.

GOD knows what's best for us even when we think we know ourselves.  He did create us, after all... so why not let the creator of who you are show you how he can protect you?  I always tell people that if the creator of the universe, the entity that crafted the stars in the dark night sky, the oceans that pulse over the surface of this Earth, and the millions of unique people that walk this planet... if He did all of that but he still took his precious time to craft you and make you unlike anyone else, don't you think he cares about you?

Lately, I've been letting him fight my battles.  I have scars to prove I tried to fight some on my own, but the wisdom those lessons afforded me are still something I wouldn't trade for anything.  I have tumbled and fallen to the bottom of the hill, scraped, bloody, bruised, and looked up to see a hand that pulled me to my feet to wipe away the tears and make it all better.  If I hadn't tumbled, I wouldn't have learned who He is.

As one of the guest pastors of my church said a few weeks ago, "If we didn't experience the pain of loss, how would we know of God's provision?"  It isn't until you're at the end of yourself that you can see His purpose for your life.  The journey is full of potholes, cliffs, rifts in the road, and you'll fall into them.  That's pretty much a given.  But when you make your way out with His help, you can't imagine the sunset you experience as the way you knew your life before, ends.

I'm telling you, that view, like the picture above, makes the entire journey worth it.

Parting thought:

Though at times the storms and stress of life
may cause my faith to quake,
the very faithfulness of God
no storm shall ever shake.
Though I may quake and tremble,
may worry and may sorrow,
God in His faithfulness will see
me through each new tomorrow.
I think God allows our problems
to give our faith a test,
to show that as we lean on Him
we can trust His faithfulness.
God warned us we'd face troubles
in this world we're living in
but Jesus died and lives again
to save our soul from sin.
He came not to change the world
but to change our heart and soul,
to give us hope and courage
to attain our fondest goal…
to blaze a trail before us
guide us safely through the "morrow,
to teach us and to comfort us
despite this world of sorrows,
if we keep faith and follow
God in His constant faithfulness
will surely lead us through
and will in time all grief arrest.
All we need to do is trust Him,
believe, just do our best,
to follow as He leads us
and let Him do the rest.
In Christ we can not be defeated
in this world by anything
if instead of being overwhelmed
we trust God in everything.
By trusting in God"s faithfulness,
in His omnipotence,
we too can overcome the world
and live with confidence.
God understands our weakness,
knows where we're coming from
but by trusting in His faithfulness
our own faith will overcome.
God wants us to lean on Him
when problems come around.
Faith is getting up again
more times than we are down.
God will carry us if need be
in those times we're hardest hit
if we believe, just lean on Him
and don't give up and quit.
He will not leave us for a moment.
Even in troubles we are blest
for God is always with us
and we can trust His faithfulness.

- A Bromley

Talk soon.

*Images above used with permission of Illuminare.Images*