Expecting an Answer
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly. – Psalm 102: 2b
It was time to get back up. I looked at the clock: 10:13 am.
Still a respectable hour, I thought. But the sleep didn’t come. Thoughts did, certainly.
You should be up. You should be interesting. You should be…
11:27 am. The dog would certainly be uncomfortable by now, though she never complains unless she must. For the dog. I must get up.
Our neighborhood perambulations were entirely motivated by my obligations to her. Left to my own devices, I’d still be wondering if I would lift the covers this time.
It was the darkest night of my soul. But God was never far.
I never wondered if God was present, aware. I knew that to every prayer asked in Jesus’ name, God would listen. I intuited that God would always turn God’s ear, that the requirements for God’s listening were much broader than even that. In other words:
God was never the problem.
God’s people were another story. Because they hadn’t shown up. Nor had their church, quite frankly.
When I needed to find the help to get out of bed, where were God’s people?
Nowhere, as it turned out. But God was still there. God was still present.
Someone once said to me: when you pray to God, you need to expect an answer.
And as I reflected on this, it was a revelation.
Sometimes when we pray: God’s people don’t hear it.
But God does.
God always inclines an ear to our prayers.
Key to this interaction, however, is this:
We need to expect a response.
God doesn’t just hear us. God responds to us. No matter how outlandish our prayers. No matter how unrealistic our perspectives. No matter how crude our prayers. God will hear them and God will respond. In God’s way.
Are you prepared to trust in God’s response?
Prayer
Almighty God: you incline your ear to us no matter what we ask. May we learn to see you in whatever form your response comes. Even when we feel like we cannot move.
About the AuthorKaji Douša is the Senior Pastor of The Park Avenue Christian Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, in New York City./div>