When I call, answer me…..

About ten years ago, Andy went for an MRI scan on his bad back. He was given the panic button to hold and pushed into the machine. He suddenly realised that he still had his wedding ring on and was worried it may affect the machine so pressed the button. No one answered. He pressed the button repeatedly. No one came. He shouted out loudly. No response. In the end, he took the ring off and threw it in the direction of the opening by his feet and hoped for the best. When the scan was completed and he was released, he then had to engage the help of those performing the scan to find his ring on the floor! Not a very reassuring story, I know. I’m glad I had my MRI scan before this incident and not after – I trust those buttons and rely on them to keep me calm – and I do need to know that someone will come if I call for help!

We’ve had a similar experience in our home life. With three adopted children, we always believed there was a body of professionals out there that would come if we ever reached a crisis and needed help. When that time came and we called out for help, that body of professionals dissolved into bureaucracy and inefficacy (ie. we didn’t get the solid help we needed!) Don’t get me wrong, we have worked with one particular individual from Adoption Services who has really stood by us and done his best for us, but on the whole………

When we cry out in desperation and make ourselves vulnerable, we long for an answer….immediately. When Courtney texts us and we do not answer immediately, we then get a stream of the following texts which soon descend into abuse…..

?

????????

Why are you ignoring us?

See, I told you you didn’t care!

(Sent to Andy: Tell mam to answer her phone!)

(Message via Nic – because she is actually often in her bedroom sending these messages…..’Courtney says look at your phone’)

Stop ignoring us, you fat bitch!!!!!!!!!!

Etc etc etc

When Courtney calls out to us for help, she needs to know we will respond. She needs to receive an answer straightaway to know that we are listening or she panics and feels completely isolated and alone.

When we cry out for help, we are desperate and we want a response straight away. And when we cry out to God from a place of crushing hurt and overwhelming despair, what do we do with that? How can we explain a God that does not seem to respond when we need help? How can there be a God that sees all the suffering in the world and does nothing about it? How can a loving God ignore all the cries for help that rise up to him? Either this God takes a perverse pleasure in watching us suffer and I want nothing to do with that kind of God or there is no God at all……because what kind of God allows innocent children to be blown to pieces in Syria or my auntie to lose her battle with cancer?

Hey, guess what? I have no answers. But I do have trust in a loving God, a God who hears all of our cries and sees all of our suffering and cares and is concerned and loves us….and does respond. Not often (if at all) by changing the course of history (because where’s the free will in that?) but in prompting individuals to shine for good in the midst of evil, individuals to come alongside us and support us and care for us and be God’s hands and feet and voices in our desperate situation.

And how do I know this? Because it says so in the Bible and has happened time and time again throughout human history and is happening everyday in my own life and the lives of those around me…..

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.  Exodus 2:23-25

The Israelites (Hebrews) were suffering. They cried out to God. God heard their cry. He cared. And he will send an unlikely hero to save them from the situation.

You may be thinking that slavery is a thing of the past. We probably all know the story of William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery – Amazing Grace is a great film to watch if not. But people all over the world are groaning out in slavery and exploitation……made to work in the most horrific and inhumane of conditions for a pittance of a wage……ripped from their homes and families and transported across the world…..and not just in far away places, but right here in the UK too. Just have a good look at the website for STOP THE TRAFFIK to get better informed and see how you could maybe be God’s hands and feet and voices in some of these situations…..how can we be part of God’s solution? That’s what we’re here for, people!

Today’s activity: Have a listen to the hauntingly beautiful Taize chant ‘O Lord, hear my prayer’ and reflect on some of the cries for help that are rising up to God all over the world and in your community and in your own room and heart today. Let God prompt you as to how you could be part of the answer this week.