Why don’t you hear their prayers?

Have you ever asked God the question “why”?
So often I find myself questioning God. Whether it be questioning His timing…His plan…His presence. In our world today it is so easy to look around and wonder where God is. Thinking about my home in Powderhorn neighborhood, I struggle when I see the evidence of violence and gangs, when I see kids who are falling through the cracks in the school system, when I see families unable to pay the bill before they get evicted form their home and forced on the streets…there is so much hurt and pain. I think about Juarez, Mexico where I am traveling in just four short days, it is hard to understand why so many innocent men, women and children are in danger because of the drug war ravaging the city. I think about the precious kids who call Emmanuel Children’s Home their home and how much they have had to overcome and how many challenges continue to face them everyday…

I ask God the question, why. Where are you?
I read a book recently by the founder of Hope4Kids International that asked this very question. As he traveled and continued to see the brokenness that is so evident all over the world he wrote about how after seeing so many parents succomb to aids leaving thousands of orphans, he fell on His knees pleading to God, “Where are you? Why don’t you hear their prayers?”

He continued on throughout the book explaining story after story of what he had seen, what he had witnessed. And at the very end, he said that in the stillness, as tears streamed down his face, he sensed God saying “I am right here where I have been all along. And I have heard their prayer that’s why you’re here.”

As I read this, I had such a heavy heart…just weighed down by the brokenness in each of the families I work with or the situation in Juarez. I felt so alone. But I realized something, I am not alone…God is here.
He’s been here and He always will be. And He wants us to be an answer to someone’s prayer. Once we know that all of this is happening, once we quit turning our faces to the “least of these” than we have a responsibility. We are now responsible for the hurting, the broken, the lost. And we will never be alone in doing this…

God is in the face of a child when you see his excitement over getting a new set of clothes. God is here when you take a mom grocery shopping so she can feed her kids this week. A little girl sees God in you when you open your arms to give her a hug to show that you care. God is here when you tell a young boy that you aren’t going anywhere and that you will be there when he needs you…

So let’s stop asking why and instead do something. From deep moments of questioning and doubt, let God lift us to a place where He can use us to both love and serve…being an answer to prayer for those who are so desperately crying out for help. And may God get all the glory.