by Rosa Zoghbi
“God bless you my child”, were the last words I heard from my mom before the most terrifying weekend of my life.
Shortly after I talked to my mom last week, the power was cut in the whole country of Venezuela. The following days felt like an eternity and every hour was like a piercing knife cutting my heart into pieces.
No power meant that there was no way to communicate with my mom or any other of my loved ones in Venezuela. All I was able to do was watch on the news the terrifying stories of people dying, people running out of water and the little food they had in their fridge was going bad. This went on for 4 days, and the News Stations titled it “The City of Shadows”.
The scariest part for me was picturing my mom all by herself in the middle of the dark every night and not being able to communicate with me or anyone else. I waited and worried. My heart was breaking and I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t imagine how she felt sitting alone in the dark in silence.
I know that for me, the sound of silence is a terrible feeling. All the bad thoughts I can possibly think of, gathered together at the same time and torture me by the minute. As a woman of faith, you will think that I would let go of the worry and trust God, but this situation challenged that for me. In fact, I did the total opposite: I let the situation control me instead of trusting God to control the situation.
When I finally heard from my mom, God reminded me of what it really means to trust Him at all times. She said that she was sad because of everything going on there and was also worried about me. Then she told me that every night all the neighbors would gather outside, play the guitar under the stars and sing songs. During the day they would check on each other and support each other. If one was lacking something, someone else would share it, and even though it was still not an easy situation, they dealt with it with grace and thankfulness.
This blew my mind. Here I was thinking the worst, and what was actually happening was that they were connecting with each other, supporting each other and doing it in the best way they could given the circumstances.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
How do you handle the sound of silence? What do you do at that moment when you so desperately need an answer and all you get is complete silence?
Do you go out in the middle of the dark and praise God? Or do you let the darkness overtake you to the point of losing all hope?
I pray that whatever is holding you back today from trusting God will be released from your life right now. That you would know that He loves you and He cares for you, that He wants to take away your pain and will renew your strength. Don’t hold on to the fear, instead hold on to Him.
Rosa is a young woman whose heart has been captivated by the love of Jesus. She has boldly stepped out in faith over and over again as Jesus has called her to follow Him. She is single by choice and will not settle for less than what God has for her in any area of her life. She is strong, honest and vulnerable. You will be blessed by her heart as she shares today.
– Cindy Grasso