Speak

I think all of us have heard someone say at least once that when they pray they feel like God isn't there. He doesn't speak to them. While God did speak to people in the Bible, in our day and age that type of speaking isn't around anymore. I'm not quite sure why, but I know God has a reason for it. There have been times for me where I have also felt like God isn't there. He didn't give me the answer I wanted, or I didn't understand what he was doing. When that happens, I'm reminded of a poem that talks about this. It's called Silence by Bradley Hathaway (I quoted him in one of my previous blogs. Yes, I'm a big fan of him :). In the poem he talks about feeling like God isn't near him and that he's at his whit's end. But as the poem goes on, things change. All the silence he keeps hearing turns into something new. Here is the poem.

What's happening here?
I was once alive and now
I'm so full of dread
And almost dead

Show me your wound head
That has led to
Communion with the Father

But where did he go?

His presence seems farther
And farther away each day

But I'm trying so hard
To steer HIS way

Yet still lonely and confused
on this cold hard ground I lay

Speak to me with wise mouth and say

"It's all good, kid
it's nothing that you did
and though it feels like
I'm not here with you right now
Just be still
and listen for that sound...


(Did you hear it?)
Listen again.

Did you hear it?

That silent vice that just spoke nothing?

THAT is ME!

I'm listening to your plea
with open ears
Counting all your tears
Flowing from your
irritated eyes
Searching the skies
Looking for that hope
that beyond there lies.

You young worrisome sparrow,
Find rest.

Lay your tattered head
upon my omnipresent breast
And make it your nest.

No strong cold wind
could ever blow
and carry you from this
your home.

Look around
See the life
Springing up from the ground?
Spring colors springing forth
in celebration of your trusting.

It's a constant process
this is growing you
into the person you are to become

And when you sense the setting of the sun
Know that it's only rising and has just begun.

Now go forth!

Sing songs of faith!

Lift up others in the midst of this race
And if you can't keep the pace
or lose sight of my face

Know that I'm always near so you need not fear.
(But don't worry all of them or that right now.)

Just sit here
and enjoy the peace I offer
in my silence.

When I am silent I am listening

and Not abandoning.

I think I'll let the poem speak for itself.