Have you ever felt like God does not listen to you? Like you want to do what he says and you believe that he is there for you, but you feel like everything you are doing is in vain? Do you ever just wish that God would show you something, something that has a meaning to you, and something that reminds you that God loves you?

I had felt this way for a while until last Monday, August 7, 2006.

Broddie and I had discussed spending some time together in prayer and in fasting, setting aside a day in search of God. Monday was that day.

We met up at Broddie's house, unsure of where we were going, but we decided ultimately that we wanted to go somewhere where there was silence, no noise from people and nothing to distract us from God. We brought sleeping bags because we were unsure if we would stay the night or not. I brought a big cooler of water and a guitar and we went south on I-75. We had not decided how long we would fast, where we would go, when we should take of the communion that we brought along (a loaf of french bread and some grape juice), and how much communion we would take (we knew we would be hungry and we didn't want to break our fast in weakness under the guise of communion).

I remembered about some trails I used to run on in south Henry County, in the water reserve complex. By around 9 AM, we found our way to the trails and we parked Broddie's truck along the outside of a field which was apparently a rarely used parking lot (we assumed because of the handicap spot). It was picturesque. We parked his truck was in the shade of some trees nearby a pavillion and there was a beautiful, clear lake we looked over from our hilltop, and we were at the beginning of a couple hiking trails.

We were already hungry, since we decded to fast, even though it was in the wee hours of the morning. We began by reading Matthew 4:1-11. This is the account of Jesus's temptation in the desert. The devil came to Jesus and told him to command the stones to become bread, but Jesus responded, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Broddie and I decided that our fasting was so that we would realize that we do not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God. We sang some songs and went to sit in Broddie's truck bed. We grew very tired, and we napped in the back of his truck in our sleeping bags. We woke up within a half hour or so and began to walk some trails. We walked for miles talking. Talking about what has been going on in our lives, and what our problems are. We talked about the fast itself and about God. We probably walked 4 miles each way on the trails and enjoyed the nature. We talked about what would happen if Christians began to be persecuted by the government and other generally random thoughts.

When we got back we were tired again. We napped for another half hour or so, and woke up to read the bible. After reading we took a break to throw a frisbee. We were very hungry. After throwing the frisbee a couple times, we realized that the gate we entered with Broddie's truck had been locked, with the truck inside. We decided to walk out the other end of the road to see if there was another way out. As we walked, we prayed out loud. We went on getting more and more fervent in our prayers. We prayed too many things for me to account for, but generally we prayed that God would be more evident tto us, and to speak to us more deeply. We walked three or four more miles down the dirt road, praying out loud and hoping to see God do something. Broddie was praying at this time out loud asking how we will get out of the park. Broddie asked how long we should keep going on this road, and instantly we looked up and saw that the road was no longer navigatable. We credited this to be an answer from God.

We turned around and prayed during the walk back. We felt changed. Our hunger was gone, no where to be found. The aches in our legs from walking went away as we prayed for God to remove them. By that time it was evening and we felt as if the fast was fulfilled in its purpose, but we decided that we would leave the walk back for God to show us otherwise if that is not the case. As we approached our "campsite," we decided to take a detour to the lake. We walked along the muddy shore feeling the comfort of our tired, dirty feet sink into the soft mud and cool off in the water. We came to some rocks and sat down with our feet in the water. By this time we were really wondering how we would get out of the park.

We knew that we had options. We could go get our cell phones which we had turned off for the day and call around to try and find the number for the park, or we coud arrange for someone to pick us up and we could return for the car in the morning. We decided instead that we should live by faith and not by sight. God loves us and takes care of us. God has never failed us, but we have failed ourselves. What sense does it make to trust ourselves? We came to grasp that faith really is trusting that God will do what he says. We sat on the rocks remembering this. It was at the point where if we were going to make a call, we would need to, because past that point, offices would close and so on. Instead we decided to wait for God to answer us. We sat on the rocks and waited. We sat there silent minus the occasional few words, waiting for an answer.

After about 15 minutes we saw two people walk by. Again, we felt that God had answered our prayer. They were hikers, they told us that the park must have closed early that day and they said that the workers usually showed up around 6:30 AM. We were astounded. God is faithful. We decided we would set up as if we were camping for the night. We returned to the campsite and decided that God had honored our fast, and it was time to fulfil it with our communion.

We probably ate the most communion we had ever eaten. We each ate half a loaf of bread (about 8 oz. appiece) and we drank the whole bottle of grape juice (glad we didn't bring wine). We felt the hunger of the day return to us, and I felt hungry yet bloated, but overall it felt good, just as it feels good to warm up even only partially when it is freezing outside.

We took my frisbee and began to throw it back and forth in the field. We were in a state of bliss in nature that our God created, we saw the signs of God and we felt the presence of God all around us. We both had tiny headaches from our bodies beginning to digest while we were hungry but we still felt great. We marveled about how we don't know how the day could have been better.

Then a truck pulled up to the gate and unlocked it.

The man yelled for us to hurry up and leave, so we threw our guitars and water cooler in Broddie's truck bed and left. As we were leaving the man, who was from the water authority, stopped us to talk to us. Apparently he had been drinking a bit, but he asked us how we got in, and we answered him. He asked us what we were doing, and we answered in an awkward way, "Actually we've been fasting." He told us to get out. We did, and as soon as we were out of the gate, we burst out laughing.

I don't know if we laughed because of the fact that our sleeping bags were still in the truck bed and we probably came off as being highly homosexual, because we answered to some authority that we were fasting, or because God had yet again delivered us through a tipsy water authority worker. Reguardless, Monday was nothing short of astonishing.

It turns out that when you don't think God is listening, sometimes it is ourselves who are not listening. God had never ignored my prayers, but I have plenty of times ignored God's faithfulness.

Next time you have a problem, pray about it, but afterwards, stop what you are doing. Seclude yourself as best as you can, and without keeping yourself occupied, just sit and wait. Wait until something happens. God is closer than you think, and his love for you is more than you can believe.