Monday, May 17

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?
—Psalm 77:9

“When it rains, it pours,” so the saying goes. We sometimes feel as if heaven has closed its door, shut down its communication tower, and left us alone to battle the demons that are attacking us on every side. We feel abandoned, left to tumble into the abyss from which there is no release.

Relentless questions clutter and clamor inside our mind. We want to know why God has withdrawn care and compassion from us, why we suffer if God loves us, why God ignores the knotted threads that tangle up our life, our heart, our soul. Our prayers are often a search for answers as much as they are requests for freedom from our suffering.

Even when no answers come, God’s ear is open to our cry. Always God sees our suffering and weeps. God does not leave us alone and solitary to endure the vagaries that randomly sweep through our lives, even when it feels as if God has become silent. 

It is in those moments when heaven seems deaf to our lament that our soul is made ready to trust in the truth of, rather than the sound of, God’s voice. It is in those moments that our soul is most ready to see miracles unfolding.

O God, let your silence lead me ever deeply into your heart of love.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2004.