I have something to tell you!

Imagine if you were the only person living on a planet.  How would you feel?  The thing is, even though there are seven billion people on earth, most of them live a life marked by isolation.  The cliché “everyone has a story” is true.  The “story” in the cliché is not a fiction.  It is the actual human experience; the truth.  The problem with that truth is; no one knows your story except you.  Even if someone knew your story; they don’t care because they too are busy in navigating through their own stories. 

The other day early in the morning I took a chair and sat by the window overlooking the main street below.  The first person that caught my attention was a rickshaw puller who was barely paddling his means of earning for the day.    He must be in his forties but looked much older and frail.  As I watched him disappear from my sight, I began to ask myself “if I was that man, what would be going through my mind each morning?”

Guwahati is terribly hot and humid a place for rickshaw pulling.  Even to take a walk in the morning would drench your clothes with sweat.  But there are possibly thousands of rickshaw pullers who cannot say “it is too hot”.  They keep stretching their bodies, wiping their sweat and paddling through the dusty streets.  If their bodies give up, should their rickshaws break down or some violent demonstrations take place in the streets; their immediate concern would be for the next meal.  Life itself comes to them as a challenge. 

Every time my wife and I take the rickshaw, my heart aches for the puller.  They would also have hopes and dreams, wishes and wants in life.  But the misery of existence has robbed them off so much that their only dream now is to find the next meal.  This goes for everyone living in abject poverty.  Oh, the curse of poverty is such; it robs the man very dignity accorded to him by God. 

Behind every rickshaw puller, there is a story.  Every one of us has a story.  Should we be given a hearing, we could bring many to tears.  But the world is so busy.  Rich are busy in becoming richer.  Poor are busy in overcoming poverty.  Life is so busy that no one has the time to hear what others have to say.  But then, life was made to be told.  Life was made to be shared.  We are not created to live in isolation and therefore, when the silence becomes unbearable, we just give up living all together.  Of all, a pastor commits suicide, a famous celebrity takes his own life and famer sets himself on fire and so on and so forth. 

The Bible says; “man is made in the image of God” and the God of the Bible is a speaking God.  He is the Logos; the very thought system.  This Logos finds proper expression through speech.  Speech is constructed through the combination of words.  Words are comprised of letters.  Letters are made up of sounds, the voice.  In essence, language is given to us so that we would be able to tell our story to someone who cares.  When there is no one to hear us, we lose the purpose of our existence.

However, there is hope.  There is hope for you even if there is no human being willing to hear your story.  God who made you in his own image longs to hear your voice because he cares for you deeply.  The Bible is God’s invitation to call on him; to tell our stories to him.  The Logos that became human said “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”.  You don’t have to allow isolation to take your life.  If you are willing, God is always willing to come into your darkness.  David was such a man who mastered the art of telling his story to God.  Reading through his Psalms will inspire you to enter into the inner sanctuary of God where you can have personal conversation with the creator of the universe.  He never gets tired listening to your story!