Day 10: Disturbing the Heart of God - Dear God .... Do you really truly care?

Day 10: Disturbing the Heart of God - Dear God... do you really truly care?

Read: Psalm 13, John 11:28-37

One of the the long and the short truths to found in living this life we have been given are found in these questions: Does anybody care about what is going on? Does anybody care enough that they will be stirred into taking some kind of action?

Now, I realize that most everybody cares about something. There will always be something that happens that will give someone a sufficient reason to take an action. For example: Breast Cancer in women for example. The Susan G Komen Race for the Cure Series is the largest and most successful education and fund raising event.

In 2012, they will have 18 international Races in 13 countries with more than 150 Races globally. Thanks to events like Komen’s Race for the Cure® Series, "we have invested nearly $1.9 billion to fulfill our promise, playing a critical role in virtually every major advance in breast cancer."

This cause draws literally tens of thousands runners (female and male) to don the color of pink and run to eradicate the disease. They make T Shirts with their loved ones on them to show their love and their passionate support. Thousands more come out to volunteer to organize the race or stand along the course to give out water to the runners. People care because someone they know has felt first hand the ravages of this disease. They believe a difference can be made, a cure found.

The late Danny Thomas and his daughter Marlo spending countless hours in founding and supporting "St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. This year the Hospital is celebrating 50 years of service to the world. Their mission statement: The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family's ability to pay. One particularly stunning fact is that no family pays St Jude for anything. It is entirely run off of donations from caring people.

On Labor Day for over forty years was the fixture of Jerry Lewis and "Jerry's Kids" in a weekend telethon that local communities put on to raise money for the battle against Muscular Dystrophy which has raised billions of dollars for the cause. There is the United Way campaign in support of hundreds of worthy causes. There is just so much to care about. And the beauty of it all is that people raise up and do care.

But then again, when we are the one's going through something that everyone else is supporting -- we are the ones whose child has a catastrophic illness, we are the ones whose loved one, perhaps even ourselves who has breast cancer or Muscular Dystrophy or any of a host of things -- sometimes we want to know: Does God Care?
For years, my wife Sharon s mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease and She along with her Dad cared for her. They watched day by day as she was separated from a lifetime of memories, separated from those who were her own family.

As the Psalmist is angrily seeking answers from the midst of his catastrophe:

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)

So we too pray the question:

Dear God,
Do you think you can take a little time out of your eternally busy day to ....?

Have you ever prayed that? Have you ever thought to pray that? It is a very hard question to ask of our loved ones let alone ask it of the God who not only knows everything that is happening throughout His creation, he also knows every thought of every heart at every moment. Yet there are genuinely times, that like the Psalmist, we struggle mightily to experience His Presence. Our perfect storms of doubt that place great winds before our eyes. We cannot keep them open, we cannot see God.

Yes, God knows every thought and emotion. But not just that .... He actually enters into our own distress and feels what we feel (John 11:28-37) God comes into our midst and survey's for Himself what causes us to ask the Dear God questions. He comes and consoles as He did for Mary and Martha. He accepts their Dear God question with only love in His heart. He touches us and He CRIES for us too!!!

Our distress causes distress in God. Please take a moment out of your own too busy day and meditate about that for a moment. Our distress causes distress in God. The Creator of the Universe, a universe to big to imagine, is not only aware of our deepest emotions, but also FEELS it right along side of us. Our distress deeply stirs the heart of God. There is such a level of distress in the heart of God -- He cried. I have read that passage from John many times and the hardest image for me to put in my own mind - is that God cried. God shed a tear for Mary and Martha as their brother Lazarus had died and been bound with funeral cloth and placed in a tomb.

Yet, even when God came, showed emotion for us, there were still the lingering questions:

JOHN 11:32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

AND

JOHN 11:37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Still the skepticism remained. But Jesus looked beyond our lingering skepticism and prayed to the Father and then called Lazarus out of his tomb and back into his community. God takes our deepest cares, our continual skepticism our continued "Dear God .... letters, and He acts. In no uncertain terms, God acts in a way that is unmistakably God. So there is sufficient reason to remain positive that how ever many times you write Dear God ..... on a sheep of paper, His love for you will be the difference. God stays true to His people. God will always find a way to show "I care".

God made man in His image for the purpose of bringing many sons to glory (Genesis 1:26-27). God knows you and loves you very intimately. “God so loved the world” is how the famous verse, John 3:16, begins. God loves and cares for the world. However, it is not this world, but the people that He made for which He cares so deeply. Jesus was sent as a sacrifice in order to save the world, but not as a group. The saving power in the sacrifice happens one sinner, one person, at a time. That sacrifice was perfect and fit for just one person, you! God loved you so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for you. Jesus cared and died for us.

And why would Jesus die for you? For the joy set before Him, to bring you to glory (Hebrews 2:9-10; 12:2). God the Father and Jesus know you very well and they have offered to you the joy of eternal life. They want to share with you all the goodness they know. God loves you very much. He thinks about you, watches over you and desires that you will embrace His promises and partake of the good things He offers to you. Never doubt how much He loves you. He sent His Son to die for you to demonstrate how earnest He is now and forever about you living with Him.

Today,

Pray Psalm 85 and personalize it for your own "Dear God ....." questions.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kLa9XjsHvo

"For Those Tears I Died" By Donnie Sumner

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i've always loved this song