One Important Fact that is Simultaneously True and Insignificant

Absolutely no one is listening.

I know you’ve noticed. Lots of people talking, shouting, tweeting, blogging, debating, declaring, speeching, preaching, sign-toting, status-updating, well . . . you know. We are a nation of assertive, right-knowing, ground-standing, self-empowered individuals and no one, no one, is going to run our lives. We’re all going to do it our way.

And it’s here, in this time, to these people, that we share the gospel. It’s into this fray we send our messages, like stray balloons, of love, grace, truth, mercy, holiness, and eternal life. (Mine keeps getting caught in the power lines, bursting into flames before it ever reaches the crowd.) This is the place and time our loving Father determined for us to represent Him, this throbbing, pulsing, vein-popping outpost of glory. Here is where He’s sent us to deliver. Even when no one is listening.

And why should they? Seriously, this is not the age to be speaking of meekness, perseverance, patience, or sacrifice. This isn’t a generation open to long-suffering, absolute truth, or eternal consequences. We have absolutely the wrong message for these times and we’re hopeless at sharing it, to boot.

You see it, too, don’t you? The best of us flubs it all in the telling or if we get the telling right, we fall short on the living. Where’s the gifting? Where’s the light shining off the mountain? Where is our writhing snake staff?

Look around, most of us are tongue-tied. We miss countless opportunities. We see the opening in the conversation and let it pass. Of every Christ-following generation, we have the most. We’re surrounded by Bibles in a multitude of languages and translations, have countless ways to attend church (actually and virtually), can tune into the best preaching with a single click, and can access entire libraries of sound teaching without leaving our chairs. And it’s the same way with witnessing! We’re not limited to face-to-face, door-to-door evangelism. No, not us, we can write the message from our bedside and see it fly across the globe. No generation before has ever been bestowed the dizzying array of vehicles for communicating Christ to the world.

But, no one is listening.

That is a fact that can be simultaneously true and insignificant.

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, no one was listening. Pharaoh didn’t listen to the Israelites. The Israelites wouldn’t listen to Moses. Pharaoh closed his ears and hardened his heart to Aaron and Moses. Read Exodus 1 – 12. It will feel so familiar. Like God’s been listening in on every Facebook thread.

Not only didn’t anyone listen to Moses and Aaron but the people they were fighting for complained to them and tried to get them to shut up! The more Moses and Aaron delivered God’s message, the worse things got for God’s people and they didn’t like it. They turned on the message deliverers and tried to silence them. Still, God sent them back to deliver again and again and again.

Because the truth was that there was someone listening throughout this whole story. There was One who listened.

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” Exodus 2:23-25

God hears our cry. He knows how lame we feel. He hears our hearts screaming for deliverance from the impossible task of representing Him in the middle of this madness. He sees the immense power of the Pharaohs of our times and He is unafraid.

He knows we can’t speak well. He doesn’t care. He knows we fall down on the job of our own lives. He forgives. He knows no one is listening to us. He knows the hardness factor of each heart. He knows even our own people plead with us to shut up because we’re making things worse. He knows you can’t make good bricks without straw. He knows.

He knows.

He knows.

Ask Moses. Trust Him. He knows.

He wants us to keep delivering even when it seems no one is listening because someone always is – our Father listens and He is the only Deliverer we need.

Tomorrow, when they won’t listen, remember that there is One who hears. He sent us to these relentless Pharaohs. We are not alone.

One important fact that is simultaneously true and insignificant https://t.co/t5p6CC3SNk You need to know #livingtruth #Gospel #amwriting

— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) January 25, 2017