God Only Knows Part 1

"God knows."

Two words said most of the time at the wrong times with the greatest intentions. Many times we often don't know what to say in times of hardship, grief and drama. People, Christians and non-Christians have a tendency to use traditional cliches, maxims and slogans in a desperate attempt to comfort, council and challenge those who they want to see happy. However, this tends to result in only more sadness, anger, and deeper questions and emotional depression. So the question for the day is, what does God really know with regards to the moment?

To respond to this question, we must first consider that situations are different, and the response to each situation will be just as different. Some situations require a response that is cliche, especially if the impact is not heavy compared to others. Other situations will demand a silent presence that allows the hurting person to release his or her honesty without fear of rejection or being silenced. Some situations involve interventions and counseling. Still others involve creative ideas. However, the most important factors in responding to situations have the elements of paying attention and love.

Practically speaking, when we get upset or stressed out about something, what is the one thing we tend to want most? A listening ear. We want to vent to someone. We want someone to relate to us, to "feel us." We want someone join to us, because misery loves company. And if we feel like we cannot trust anyone, then we want to be by ourselves. We close ourselves from the rest of the world. And if we vent to someone, and that person tries to cap our feelings with some "saying," we feel unheard and bottled up like a shaken soda can.

But let's say we find one person who seems to listen to every heartbeat like a doctor, and we are able to burn like the fiery furnace, and they don't run away or try to throw water on us. This person allows us to be "naked and unashamed" in a sense. Man! We never want to lose that person. We always want them around. In fact, if we have been blessed to have this person in our lives, we tend to abuse them and never truly ask them how they are. These people tend to be few and far between. Or are they?

Now that we have talked about the "self" side of this conversation, let's relate it to other people. We know that at the end of the day, everyone wants the same things in principle. So why do so many of us forget to allow people to be people where they are? It is because we have not understood some of the very things we try to tell others and therefore have not wrestled with our own discomfort. We tend to forget, not the "AHA!" moments, but how long it took us to get there. Then we treat others as if they should get there faster than we did by our mere attempt to speak to them.

So what does this have to do with the question at hand? We realize that as humans, we have a very limited understanding of what it means to respond to a situation without help. We started with ourselves because we needed to establish a common flaw. Hosea tells us in 4:6 that people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. This knowledge is not simply factual, it is also a relational scope. We often try to speak fact without relationship and expect a fantastic result. But God, Whom we will call Adonai Emmanuel (Lord God With Us) for the remainder of this series, has given us examples how we can "Know" in order to save/help others and ourselves and understand Him more and more. We will start with one of His most powerful tools on the next blog entitled: The Silent Watcher.