Many of us have enjoyed singing the song entitled “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” Addressed to the Lord Jesus, it expresses the peace that we can enjoy in walking closely with Him in the midst of our weakness and the burdens of the path through this world. It is a prayer that the Lord would grant a deeper sense of nearness to and communion with Himself.
The last time I sang this song with a group, one question in the second stanza stood out in my mind and made me ponder it ever since. It asks, “If I falter, Lord, who cares?” What particularly struck my soul was the fact that the song had been requested by a young person in the middle of his teenage years. I asked myself, Could it be that this young man’s heart and many others like his is crying out with this question? Is the pace of life so fast and hectic that it feels like no one notices and, worse yet, no one cares when I am struggling? It is with these questions in mind that I share these thoughts, with the prayer that they will be an encouragement and help to anyone whose heart echoes these words, “Lord, who cares?”
We’re Not Alone
Before we look for answers to this question, let’s remind ourselves that men and women in past ages have had similar feelings too. The Word of God records many whose life and service for Him were not appreciated by those close to them. Joseph’s brethren, motivated by jealousy and hatred, sent him far away from those he loved and cared for, where he was then falsely accused by his employer’s wife and sent to prison. When David was hated by King Saul and chased for his life, he wrote, “Refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Psa. 142:44I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. (Psalm 142:4)). Job suffered tremendous losses so that his wife encouraged him to “curse God, and die” (ch. 2:9); his three so-called friends did more to accuse than to console in their discourses, and Job might well have felt that no one cared for him in his very great grief and anguish.
The Disciples
With others, their feelings of despair and hopelessness came when their faith in the Lord Jesus grew weak. When the disciples were in a boat with Jesus and a violent storm arose while He slept, they awakened Him and asked, “Master, carest Thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:3838And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? (Mark 4:38)). Of course, such an accusation was thoughtless and lacked regard for the Person who was with them, but the apparent danger and urgency of their predicament made them react with the suggestion that Jesus must not care.
Martha
Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, had a similar feeling. She received Jesus into her house, but as she served Him, she grew distracted by the fact that her sister Mary was listening to Jesus’ word at His feet rather than helping her. She complained to Him, “Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?” (Luke 10:4040But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. (Luke 10:40)). Did she wish that she could sit at Jesus’ feet? or did she want Mary to get up and help her with the domestic work? Perhaps both thoughts motivated her to question whether the Lord Jesus really cared about her present situation.
Elijah
Elijah was “a man of like passions to us” (James 5:1717Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (James 5:17) JND). He stood for God on mount Carmel against hundreds of false prophets and demonstrated the power and holiness of the true God (1 Kings 18). As a result, the wicked queen Jezebel threatened his life, and he then requests to the Lord that he might die. Twice he says to the Lord, “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10,1410And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (1 Kings 19:10)
14And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (1 Kings 19:14)). In other words, no one else cares.
This is the only failure of an Old Testament saint that is recorded in the New Testament (Rom. 11:2424For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:24)). It marked the end of Elijah’s public usefulness to God: He told Elijah to anoint Elisha to be His prophet instead of Elijah. How it stirs our souls to want to cut off such feelings of self-pity and despair before they take hold of our hearts and to seek the divine answer whenever the thought creeps into our minds, “Who cares?”
In the next issue, Lord willing, we’ll dig into the Word of God together to search for that divine answer.
D. R. Macy