Karla Rose
Recently I have been reading my way through Pete Greig’s book ‘God on Mute’. It’s a book that digs into the thoughts, feelings and pain that we experience when we pray and are met with silence. While I can’t even pretend that I have an answer for God’s silence, Pete provides some solid thoughts on why, at times, we feel that God is silent and why God might leave prayers unanswered.
In this day and age where making ends meet is beyond difficult and finding joy is harder still, prayer is all many of us have left; even the occasional atheist has been known to ask God for an answer or two. So feeling as though your prayers remain unheard, unacknowledged and unanswered can be particularly painful.
In these situations, where prayers remain unanswered and hope is absent, Pete says that “sometimes the only place we can find the hope of glory is in one another. Not in prayer, not in the Bible, not in worship, but in community.”
He goes on to say that “God speaks to us through people.”
I think he’s probably right. While prayer, the Bible, and worship undoubtedly hold true value, and are essential to Christian life, sometimes we need the words of people who have what we don’t or have travelled the path we are only now stepping on to.
When we can’t find the hope or answers to prayer for ourselves, our community is where we can receive God’s wisdom, knowledge, joy, and truth.
I was reminded in conversation recently of the loneliness that permeates society. There are, of course, people who refuse to engage with the world, but there are also people, and sometimes we can be included in their number, that are lonely, adrift in our communities, and all it would take is for us to open our mouths to set the world to rights for them.
It doesn’t even take much, an acknowledgement of someone else’s gifts and talents, a smile, a listening ear, an invitation to church.
We might be exactly the community that supports someone through the most difficult day of their life and be none the wiser that you had impacted them at all.
The people around us, whether neighbour, stranger, family, or friend, impact how we not only see the world, but how we see God. They have impact, and so do you.
We can be people who, on our best days, point others back to God, and, on our worst days, plant ourselves within a community who will point out the way for us.
The power in community, especially Christian community, is that we don’t even have to say God’s name for Him to be a part of the conversation.
If we are there, He is there. In the little things and the big things, all we need to do is open our eyes, hearts, arms and minds, and share some hope with the people around us.
