Can You Hear Us (Session 1)

The session opened with the video clip that shows lots of different pictures of students and leaders. It was really moving to see the way people chose to express how they felt when they sensed that God wasn't present in their lives.

Dave started his talk out with a video clip from Bruce Almighty that tied in perfectly with our video. Bruce is crying out to God for a sign, any sign, that He is listening, or for a sign of what to do. A truck cuts Bruce off and it is laden with signs that say "Stop" or "Yield". He views it as a nuisance, quickly passes the truck, and continues to plead for a sign, completely missing the signs that God places in our life.

He transitioned into talking about people who constantly seem to hurt and suffer, seeking healing and restoration, both physically and relationally. Yet God remains silent in those times. Years of abuse might continue, illness, loss, and pain without a sign that we recognize from God. Where is He in those times? Does He not care about us? There is no easy way to answer all of those questions.

But Dave offered up to things to help keep us in a right state of mind as we wrestle with the uncertainty of God in our lives.

So the big question for the entire weekend is this:
What do you do when God is silent?

Dave offered two suggestions:
1) Consider His enormity
2) Consider that there is so much more going on than we can understand

First, in reference to God's enormity. Dave threw out a fact that was fascinating. If we condensed our galaxy to 80 miles, our solar system would be approximately 2 millimeters across. The enormity of the world that we live in is mind boggling!

To think then that there is a Creator necessitates that He is bigger and more awesome than the whole of creation should bring us humbly to our knees. It should also offer us a comforting thought to know that God is bigger than anything that is plaguing us.

Daniel experienced one of the most interesting stories that can be found in the Bible. One of the angels was sent to him with a message, but was detained by the "Prince of Persia". While we could speculate for the rest of our lives what this means theologically, it seems clear that there is another world outside of our own that we do not fully understand.

The connection between God hearing us and that is simple: we may not get the answer we are looking for because of reasons and extenuating circumstances that we cannot see or grasp.

This translates into an exercise of faith. When we perceive God to be silent, we need to trust that He is still there, still listening, still loving us. And perhaps we need a new way to think about God. He wants us to be real with Him, which includes expressing our frustrations and anger with Him.

Job was the ideal man. He had everything and truly loved the Lord. He was patient, generous and kind. Then, because Satan wanted to test him, God allowed Job to lose everything he had. And Job did not question God, he only said that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. But finally, once Job began to cry out in frustration to God, God revealed Himself in a terrifying way to Job. He demanded that Job gird himself like a man and answer God's questions. This incredible encounter begins to show us that we truly do not understand all of God's purposes.

But this is no simple exercise in knowledge. This is real, tangible, gut wrenching and heart aching reality. God is silent at times. God doesn't answer prayers the way we want. And God does allow us to suffer.

What do you do when God is silent?