As we move through the 24 hours of every day, our priorities become fixed on the demands of whatever shouts the loudest. Although we have our pre-planned agendas, the squeakiest wheel usually gets its oil, and there isn’t a day without abundant squeaks.
Last week while walking Jack, I marveled at the kiwi green dominating the neighborhood. Gardens were shouting, “It’s spring, and I’ve come back to life!” Yards were in that magical window of lush beauty when greenery is sturdy and stands tall.
However, there was one plant Jack and I passed daily that was dead, a cluster of lifeless sticks. I wondered why the gardener hadn’t dug it out. Today, though, after a week of warm weather and lots of rain, it had suddenly come to life, putting on the brilliant green of spring. It hadn’t been dead after all.
Most of us travel through dry, lifeless periods with God when we pray but feel the relationship has died. Answers don’t come, and we have the sense he’s turned his back on us. Well-meaning friends say, “Don’t worry. He hasn’t turned away.” But we can’t shake that feeling.
The scriptural “Doubting Thomas” had heard the rumor that Jesus, who was dead, had come back to life. But he couldn’t have a relationship with someone he thought was lifeless until the two of them talked face-to-face.
Many of us feel that same way. We’re jealous of the disciples who got to hear Jesus teach in a human voice. Even in the Old Testament, God’s voice factored into many of his relationships. Adam and Eve got to converse with him daily and apparently so did Noah, Moses, Job, Abraham and others. Unable to hear his voice, we sometimes think we’re on audio-blackout from God.
What we have to remember is that not hearing him doesn’t mean we’re without his words. We have our Bibles, complete with multiple versions and scholarly commentaries. (I can see 29 copies of God’s Word right now, from where I’m sitting.)
None of us are in a black-out.
We may come to dry places in our spiritual lives, but it helps to know Jesus did, too. He was in an arid Middle Eastern desert for over a month, assaulted by evil the entire time, possibly feeling an audio black-out from his Father. So what did he do? He opened his ears to hear God through Scripture, then made sure the devil heard it, too.
Two other times, once in a garden and once on a cross, he prayed, but God didn’t respond. The spiritual parching of those moments nearly overwhelmed him.
It’s important to notice, however, those dry spells didn’t last. They had a beginning and an end, which is still true today. If we can’t hear God in the moment, we should believe we soon will.
The dead plant in my neighborhood seemed hopeless, but when God ended its dry spell, life burst forth.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back…” says the Lord your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7,8)
