Clay in the Hands

Do you ever feel God is silent?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit with a young man who is suffering.  He was visibly hurting, to the point of tears, so I approached him to offer a shoulder.  He relayed to me that his grandmother has been sent home to die of cancer.  Hospice has taken over and the only thing left is to wait for the inevitable.  On top of that devastation, his mother-in-law just learned that she may have cancer as well.  As I sat beside this broken young man, I had little to offer but an ear.  I did my best to console him and his wife.  I then knelt and prayed with them and went on my way.

I have been thinking a lot about suffering lately.  We all suffer from time to time.  Many of us have experienced deep emotional and spiritual pain.  I have been there and find myself there now.  Some of you may be with me in the midst of this kind of suffering today.  If you have never experienced a period in your life when you felt God was absent and silent, I pray you never do – it is agonizing.

But even in the midst of such pain and suffering, I know that God is at work.  I trust that God is in control.  No matter how abandoned I feel, I have to believe that God has a plan.  It is in times like this that we must press on.  Even in the hollowness of going through the motions, God wants us to be faithful and do what we know to do.

Jesus never told us that following him would be easy – simple maybe – but not easy.  Press on!  Have hope!  God is still in control.