Zapiro who? Mugabe who? Zuma who? And another sad day in school
A week of loud noises: Zapiro’s polarizing cartoon, seemingly a solution for Zimbabwe, and Zuma’s court hearing. All fighting for headlines and competing for our attention. Granted this week was louder than most, but it seems we actively seek out these shouts from the world around us and give them our full attention, because we don’t want to hear the small susurration of whispers that surround us.
From more than half the high school kids, the notes submitted when they were given an opportunity to ask for prayer were focused on personal suffering and hardship! But how often, if we take time to listen, we simply throw back the platitudes and judgments of Job’s friends.
But the kid’s notes are like the whispers and cries that go unspoken all the time from those around us. And just as we focus on the grandeur of God’s creation, so that we can avoid His whisper (1Kings 19:12), so we obsess about loud and distant secular headlines. And all the while our ears are closed to the close quiet sounds.
A sample of the kids questions, their anonymous whispers:
• Why are people put on earth only to end up dying?
• Why do You take people who are full of love and kindness away
• Why do you let the wicked stay on earth?
• Why did God take away my parents if He loved me?
• Why is life so hard (and many, many variants of this !)
Well, a little of this may be teenager angst, but for many these are deep questions reflecting a deep turmoil of personal hurt. For most, time will crudely numb these issues and leave a scar of insensitivity that makes it harder to hear God’s voice.
BUT: how many, instead of being scarred, would have been healed if there was someone listening to the whispers, and returning the soft voice of Jesus’ compassion. You are called to be the ear of Jesus for those around you. You are called to hear the whispers. You are called to listen … again, again, and again.
How much wax do you have in your ears?