That’s definitely, I imagine, one of the stranger titles people have seen. It’s the most appropriate title that I can think of right now, though. There are several events and items that have coalesced to cause me to choose to write this piece. First of all, there was feeling down, and finding comfort from God from new friends that I’ve made in the past couple of weeks. Secondly, there is this song that I heard, “Does Anybody Hear Her” by Casting Crowns. The video is beautiful, and speaks to the fact that too many Christians are hypocrites who do not do their best to help hurting people. Instead, we shun them.
In my own life, I’ve experienced this. I’ve been rejected because of what people percieve as my faults. But I’ve also been embraced by others, not because of myself, but because the Lord chose to use them to reach out to me.
How often in life do we stand by and watch as others suffer? How often do we, as the video says, shun them because of their “scarlet letter”? How often do we hide behind the “shadow of our steeple”? How often do we judge people from behind our steeples?
I really don’t know. I do know that the Lord rarely comes to us in a Touched by an Angel type of mystical way. He most often comes to us through others. Have you ever had a friend who has shown you so much love, caring, and acceptance, that you almost thought it was too good to be true? That there was something beyond ordinary about it? It was, for people. There was. That was the Lord showing you love. It’s not magic. It’s enchanted, as JRR Tolkien would say. It’s the simple act of the Lord bending down to our level. Think of that, a cosmic being bending down to our level. As CS Lewis pointed out, it is an amazing idea to consider.
Yet, the Lord makes it clear that He does not come down by force, He looks for this willing to show His love. When we refuse to show love to others, we are not the vessels the Lord can use to help those hurting people. Could the Lord force his way in a mystical Touched by an Angel type of way? Could He simply force us to be nice? Well, yes, He has that power. No, however, He can’t use it, for it is against His nature. He has established rules for how these things will be governed. As a God of Order, He must abide by His own rules. Think of when Jesus said that He could not do miracles in a town, because of that town’s unbelief. When we refuse to reach out to others, we sin. Oh, how we sin. How many souls shall the Church have to give account of to the Lord someday? How many have been damned to Hell because of our unkindness? I shudder to think of it.
Yet, when we do reach out to others in Godly kindness, what is the result? The result is that of the Lord using us to help others in such a dramatic, wonderful, (yes, I will even say it) supernatural way. At the end of the video for “Does Anybody Hear Her”, this woman reaches out to the hurting girl, and now she is starting to get it together. Some people might say, it’s not that sudden. I say from personal experience, that yes it is. The girl will not be instantly okay. With continued assistance from the other girl, however, the Lord will little by little mend her heart. I have had difficulties that I have little desire to go through here. They are not over at all. I honestly don’t know if they ever will be. I know that friendship has helped to ease some of the pain of it all.
God is in the small things. He is in the great things, as well. He chooses to reveal himself through the small things. If we need comfort, we should go to the small things, such as a simple hello, or a conversation. If we want to give comfort, all we have to do is to extend the same to others.
