is God listening?

sometimes it's not hard to wonder if God is listening. to ask if He sees what's going on.

with so much pain and suffering in this world, we wonder if He's turned His back. if He's walked away. if He's given up.

i know i would. i'd turn my back. i'd walk away. i'd give up.

and i have before.

because it's all too much. it's all too overwhelming.

the tragedies, the abuse, the downright craziness of this world is too much to think about. too much to bear.

who wants that job? to be in charge. 

to be the one people look to for answers. to be the one people look for to blame.

not me. don't sign me up. don't throw my name in the bucket. i'm not interested.

at all.

i have no desire to be the one who has to fix this mess. to deal with these issues.

but thankfully i don't have to volunteer. i don't have to worry that someone might see me hiding in the back and ask me to take charge. 

because God's already done that.

He's already taken that responsibility.

and He doesn't need me to fix this world. He doesn't need me to think that it's all on my shoulders.

because it isn't. 

it's on His.

He's got this. He's got the plan. He knows what needs to be done.

and though it's not all about me, He needs me. He needs you.

He needs us to help in our little corner of this world.

He needs us to spend more time reaching out to others than worrying about ourselves.

He needs us to help the broken. to seek the lost. to pray for the hurting.

and not every every broken, lost, or hurting person. 

but the ones He puts in our path.

the ones we see everyday. the ones who tug at our hearts even as we turn away.

we don't have to save the world but we should want to help where we can.

because for some, the first time they see God, the first time they feel Him, is through us.

through our compassion. through our actions. through our love.

with so much hurting in this world, sometimes it's easy for us to wonder about God. to wonder if He sees what's going on.

it's easy to sit back and wonder if God is listening.

but the real question, the much harder one and the one we don't always want to know the answer to is this...

are we?