I resisted for a long time. Finally I had my hearing tested to satisfy my wife. I knew the audiologist would give me a clean bill of hearing health. Surprise! One ear was hearing poorly and the other was OK. The doctor checked me and determined that a hearing aid would do the trick. Oh boy! The sound of pots and pans in the kitchen became louder. The road noise in my car escalated. When the phone rings I jump. A whole new world has opened to me to the tune of $4,000.
For years I have been under the impression that God needed hearing aids. I have gone to church and heard that the more people pray the more likely God is to hear. I have read books that insist that if you are sincere enough and you plead loud enough God will hear. Really?
The hospital pharmacist asked me to have lunch with him. He had given up on church, Bible reading, and God. When he was a 10-year-old boy his mother was diagnosed as having a fast-moving cancer. Chances were great that he would lose his mother.
The church people had the solution. Get enough people praying for Mom and God will heal. The boy recruited dozens of “prayer warriors” convinced that the church people knew what they were talking about. Mom died. His faith died. He would no longer believe in a deaf God. How could church folk be so cruel? Where on earth did they find proof in the Bible for such belief? Did they know about the disastrous results of their advice?
I told the pharmacist about a professor of New Testament who co-lectured with me at an American Cancer Society forum. He had a whole church praying for his wife’s healing. She died 6 months before he lectured with me. He was consumed with the WHY question. In all of his study he could not find the answer to the big question. He finally decided that the Bible was not written to answer the big question, but it told about God’s plan to get us out of the mess our world is in. He did find answers to other questions. Does God take my suffering seriously? If so, what has he done about it? What is he doing about it? What will he do about it? What has he done about it? He died in my place. What is he doing about it? He has sent angels to be ministering spirits to give me peace. What will he do about it? He will come again and wipe all tears from our eyes. Death will be no more.
I told the pharmacist that I thought God was deaf when our son died. I believed God had big enough shoulders to handle my despair. He only needed my little voice saying God, I don’t understand. I trusted that he would get me through my questionings. I told him to tell God how he felt.
That 10-year-old’s experience has stayed with me. I have determined that I would not wax eloquent about something I could not prove. I concluded that God doesn’t need a hundred or a thousand prayers, but one calling out in despair and hope. Instead of a legion of prayer warriors God is able to use strong arms around a troubled soul. My “being with” can be felt like God is “present with.” I hope my pharmacist friend felt my presence as the presence of God. I hope he eventually learned that God does not need hearing aids.