Josiah Road

Can You Hear Me Up There?

posted by Jonathan Frank 23Oct

Here I am almost two months into my “college experience” as everyone over the age of forty likes to call it, and I still couldn’t be happier with my choice in a school. It is the perfect distance from home—about an hour and a half (which allows for space and time away from home, but I can still go back on a whim), I’ve met a lot of great people, and I enjoy my classes. My one complaint, however, is that sometimes I do feel a little “lost in the crowd.” It is a big transition to go from my high school of just under 1,000 people to a college of about 10,000.

I was fairly involved in high school. I knew most of the students, teachers, and our principal, and had gotten involved in a few clubs and activities (i.e. show choir and mock trial—yeah, I was way cool) but at college the idea of trying to get involved with anything seemed kind of daunting, and it’s been difficult to get to know my teachers in classes of 150+ people. In fact, come to think of it, I’m not entirely sure any of them could tell you my full name. In my college algebra class it is actually “H14”—which seems like a system you would be more likely to encounter in a prison than a college, but I won’t contest the prerogative of the person teaching the class that is my worst subject because I may need to bribe him for a passing grade in the end—but I digress.

Sometimes I feel like that when I’m talking to God. It’s easy to wonder, “Does anybody really hear me up there?” It is mind boggling to ponder how God could possibly hear all of my prayers to Him. But in my relationship with Jesus Christ I am never just another face in the crowd, and although God knows what I am going to say before the thought even enters our mind; He desires to hear my prayers! Jeremiah 33:3 tells us, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” while 1 John 5:14 inspires us to know that, “I have courage in God’s presence, because we are sure that He hears us if we ask Him for anything that is according to His will.” What an incredible truth to rest in and live in! People matter to God.

Thank you Lord that I am significant and precious in your sight, that you care deeply about my day-to-day life, and that although sometimes I may feel lost in the crowd, You know my name, You know my every thought and action, and You hear me when I call to You!