By Pastor Steve Nickodemus

Do You Hear Me?

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“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  Why are you so far from my cries of anguish?”
Psalm 22:1 New International Version

“Where are you, Lord?”  This is the cry of the man in grief and pain.  I sat with him this afternoon and listened to this man, usually so stoical, cry out to God in his pain and grief.

His wife of many years had unexpectedly died and after the first weeks of numbness, he can not stop crying.    He is wracked by feelings of loneliness, isolation, abandonment, and lostness.  He asks himself, “Has God forsaken me?  Am I being punished?  Will it always feel this badly?”

He apologizes to me for crying and I tell him that he can cry as much as he wants to with me.  And he can ask as many questions of God as he wishes, that God is not angry with him nor does He grow tired of his tears and his cries.

I tell him of a Son who cried out to His Father on a cross long ago.  I tell him of God promising to walk with him even through the valley of the shadow of death.  I assure him that Jesus will not desert him and that he understands his pain.

But mostly I listen and sit with him and give him permission to cry and call out to God.  And I pray for him and he lets me give him a hug.  And I know that Jesus is there in the room with us and it is a tremendous privilege to listen and reflect God’s love to him and tell him that I will see him again.

And I assure him with the most beautiful words, “The Lord be with you.”  For He is and ever will be, even when I am afraid He has forsaken me.  And I remind him that for his tears He died.  Amen.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado