Job

I heard a great message delivered by David Platt to his congregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Their area has been ravaged by the tornadoes that we've seen on the news recently. What a difficult message that must have been to deliver or even to come up with since so many in their faith family were hurting and experiencing devastating loss.

His message was on Job, the ultimate example of the sufferer. Job - the man who never knew about that conversation between God and Satan that resulted in his loss of so much. From Job's perspective, he loses everything and is given no purpose in it. There's no indication that Job ever knows about that conversation between God and Satan. He loses loved ones and property and even his health and then the loss of support from his wife and his friends. Those calling him friends go on and on for endless chapters doubting that he is faultless in his pain. Then in chapter 40 God speaks. He is poised to answer the question of why we humans must suffer and why bad things happen to good people and ...................... God proceeds to respond by asking 60-some questions of Job. He doesn't answer. The answer is this - He is God and He was with Job through all of it. The supreme God of the Universe who omnisciently knows all the answers, does not answer with the kind of answers we want. He answers with Himself.

And that got me thinking. My whole spiritual journey has led to that same point. I sought concrete answers for so long. I want to know exactly the answer to this theological controversy or that. Why did I have to go through this hardship or that one? And then not so long ago, I stopped needing answers in the way I once imagined an answer. What I longed for more than anything was His Power and His Presence in my world and in me. At first I thought I might be compromising in some way - maybe I was broken. But the longer this goes, the more REAL answers I get. The peace that He is giving me is far beyond anything I had when I got the answers. I am so grateful that He knows better than I do PRECISELY what I need. His Power, Presence and Grace are more than enough.

Resonance

Merriam Webster defines resonance as a quality of evoking a response. I once saw someone liken our relationship with God in terms of resonance and the comparison stuck with me. They invited a singer on stage to sing a strong C note. As that singer sang that note the camera zoomed in and showed the strings of the nearby grand piano. And as that singer belted out the C note, that C string on the piano recognized its own and ever so slightly vibrated. I was fascinated. But even more so with the application to our relationship with God. When we are pressed into God and the Holy Spirit is moving in us and Christ is in us working freely to shine through us, as God does His work around us, that resonates in us and evokes a response. In other words, we know it's God and we MUST act. I heard a wonderful reminder of that several days ago.

My thirteen year old niece, Molly attended a weekend retreat at her church where the theme was "Hearing from God." The larger group gathered together in preparation for some outreach opportunities at local stores and they were asked to spend some time in prayer asking God to give them an idea of what they were supposed to do or look for as they spent their time serving. Kids were supposed to keep an open mind and see if God gave them a specific picture or words or directions about what they would find while serving. When they were done with their group prayer, they spent some time praying alone and then listening to God. Molly came away from that time with a vivid picture of a man helping an elderly man. When Molly related this to her mom, I can tell you my sister was skeptical. Really? Would God give a picture like that?Sounded - well, weird.

Well, the youth group headed out to the Giant Eagle to purchase some supplies and as they were headed back out into the parking lot, Molly stopped. There in front of her were two men - an elderly man being helped out of the car by another younger man. She quickly grabbed the arm of a friend, told her about the picture God gave her and asked her to go with her. They walked over to the men and asked if they needed any help and made some small talk. Then they asked if there was anything that they could pray about for them. And the man's response? "Well it's strange that you should ask that. We found out today that my son was killed in Afghanistan." The girls prayed with the men and were moved to tears.

I'm moved to tears even retelling that. God resonated in the heart of my dear young niece. She was tuned in to His divinely sung note - when He gave her that picture, when she saw those men, and when she obeyed His request. My sister spoke the words that I'm sure many parents long to say, "God talked to my baby today." But do you know that it's even better than that? For all of us? He talks to us EVERY single day. ALL THE TIME. But we don't hear because we aren't in tune with the note He's singing in our lives. We aren't talking to Him or studying His Words to us. The best part of what happened to Molly was not that He spoke to her. It was that she knew Him, was pressed into Him, and loved His voice so much that she knew her Jesus was speaking into her life and using her to heal another hurting soul. I long for that for all of us.