Attention

When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD.
He brought me into a spacious place. The LORD is with me: I will not be afraid.

Psalm 118:5,6b NIV

 

What does it take for the LORD to get our attention? I mean, really get our attention? Scripture, history and our own experience indicates that when thing go “well”, we are likely less attentive to Him ( Dt 8:14). I don’t quite know why that is. I wish it weren’t so. I am sure there are manifold exceptions, but they simply prove the rule. Our attention wanders and God uses “pressure” to turn us towards Him.

The psalmist recounts his trial. The NIV translates “hard pressed” what it elsewhere describes as “being in distress”. He didn’t have it all together. Life was closing in on him. He was under pressure. In his case, it was due to the efforts of people who were out to hurt him. That may be true in our case, but usually it is a combination of stressors that should indicate that maybe, just maybe, we should turn to Him. Not in formality but in a heartfelt way.

So, what did he do? He cried out. The tone of the psalm would indicate that he” poured it out”. When God has our attention, we likely have His. He knows the difference between whining ( grumbling) and a heartfelt call for help from a desperate place. What comes to mind is the sound of a steam kettle when it is boiling over. I know that sound, and can differentiate it from other sounds. Parents can differentiate between the cries of their children. If I can be so bold, it seems as though the LORD’s ear is attuned to certain ‘sounds’.

The problem with the contemporary version of our species is that we look for all sorts of other means to reduce the stress. We find ways to distract and medicate ourselves, and avoid using the pain and distress as a signal, an opportunity, to press into His grace and provision. Indeed, we will often do anything else BUT.

We are all at different places. But stress, in varying intensity, is something common to our community. So is the feeling of being “hard pressed”. We encounter it differently. We deal with it differently. But hear the psalmist. In crying out to the LORD, it does not seem as though his situation necessarily changed. But His ability to deal with it was transformed. He encountered God. “The LORD is with me.. I will not be _______ “.

See your pain or distress as a “wakeup”. Turn to Him. Be real. Pour it out. Press in. Allow Him to reveal Himself to you in the midst of your valley. He does it well.