"Our Father's Ears"

"In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears." (Psalms 18:6) Not that we need to be loud and persistent in our prayers, because God's ears can hear even our thoughts; but sometimes our crying out to Him is our sign of desperation. As I think back to some of the most distressful times in my life, I think the most distress that I ever felt was the night that my wife was stricken in the hospital, almost nine years ago this month. I can't tell you what I felt like, because it was something that took me by such a huge surprise. I had always thought of myself as a strong believer, and I had really never questioned God's intentions or given a second thought to what God was allowing to happen in my life; but that night was different, and I was shaken to my very core. I recall my determination at the hospital to be strong, and how I even tried to encourage my mother-in-law, as she was very upset seeing her only daughter looking as though she were dead and purple, with tubes hooked up to her to keep her alive. I did not want to leave that hospital that night, but around 11:00pm we were told that there was nothing else to do but let her sleep, and to get some sleep ourselves, or we would likely need medical care also. When I left the hospital, I was beginning to fall apart; as I drove the 20 minute drive to my house, I was crying so hard I could hardly see the road. And after arriving home, I went into my office and fell upon my knees; crying out to God, WHY???? It is something that I can only remember as a time of great distress, and I moment that I was so shaken, that even my very fiber was undone and I felt as though I could have exploded from all the stress that was within me in that moment. But then, after crying to God, and having cried harder then I ever can remember crying before, I felt such a peace come over me; so much so, that I went in and crawled into bed, and went straight to sleep. Thinking back to that moment, I can only consider that I was calmed by the fact that God heard my cries and that He responded to my distress. Call it a sedative of God, or whatever; but all I that I know is God's peace came upon me in such a way that I was able to shut my eyes and go straight to sleep. The strange thing is, that the question asked of God when I shouted out Why, was no longer needing to be answered; as I woke that next morning, about 4:00am, I called the hospital to see how Marianne was doing, and was told, The same. Praise God, I thought, she is still here with us. So I hurried down to the hospital to pray over her and to read some Psalms to her. All the while, that question was not there any longer; but a determination was there in my heart to just trust God. This was a different trust than I had ever had before, because it was not a blind trust, as many might just trust without knowing what direction that they are going; but it was a determined trust, that was given to a direction and a purpose of God. I know that some might question why it is that I refer to that trust as not being a blind trust, because faith is something that is not seen; but when God hears our cry, He makes us know that He listens; it is that making known that He hears us, that gives us sight to our faith, because we are instantly part of something much bigger than what we see..."I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place." (Psalms 118:5)