The Lord is close to the broken hearted

The Lord Calls Samuel
3 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 5 And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.
6 Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
8 A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.10 The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”1 And the Lord said to Samuel:

Like the gentle ocean breezes our Lord breaths life into us. When it seems He has forgotten us when tragedy strikes, our Lord draws us near to him. 

Like the famous line from Apollo 13 movie with the mission chief's words following the atmosphere of gloom, " With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour".

Grief can become our finest hour. Oh, it may not seem like it as we wrestle with the endless night of crying and our inability to think rationally, or the cascading emotions that seem to hit us throughout the days and nights like the ocean like the high and low tides of the ocean.

 I believe that our grief will be a time that the Lord assures us in our dreams that He has our back and is walking with us every step of the way on our journey. Just as God spoke to Samuel at a time when people rarely heard God's voice, God is speaking to many people today in their dreams reassuring them that he hasn't abandoned them, nor forsaken them. 

It is why many former people of the Muslim faith through their prayer and fasting moments of their faith are hearing the voice of Jesus and seeing Jesus in their dreams. Those of us in the American west forget that fact because in the west we pride ourselves with having sound intellectual thought with our ability to reason.

In some sense, our intellectual pride becomes our idol and stumbling block to truly knowing Jesus.  

Not until our lives really get messy with the losses in our lives, do many of us see that Jesus, not our intellectual pride needs to be at the core center of our worship.  It is in our dreams that God uses to speak reassurances to us that He is walking with us. It is in our dreams that help us to make the 'U' turn to get on the right path God desires us to be on.  It is in our dreams where Jesus radically changes a person's heart and gives them new motives for living, a new life filled with the purpose God has for them.

 As Grief and sorrow enter your life, it too can be our finest moment when you hear the subtle voice of the Lord.

 Like Samuel, let us say, speak for your servant is listening, and then sit back and listen.