For You, oh God, have heard my vows; Psalm 61:5a

God hears. Even when I am not aware that He hears. Even when my problems are so imprisioned in my own mind that I think they are hidden even from myself, He hears. I have been the person who hid even from myself. My faith job was to placate God, and hope He was not privy to the secrets inside me. The Psalmist acknowledges that God hears his vows, but it goes much deeper than that; though we do not know how, He hears even the thoughts we try to hide from ourselves. Perhaps this may seem like an intrusive thing, a fearful thing that God knows what I have not spoken. But it can also be a freeing thing; since God knows, we no longer need to hide our secrets. We can speak our vows to the Lord, and we can also speak our secrets. In that, there is hope. This week, I became an unwitting witness to another person's tragedy. Two days later, it has not lost its sting, her moans of hopelessness still reverberate in my mind whether I want them to or not. In time, it will fade like other tragedies I have been a witness to. It will fade, but I will not forget. I will also not forget that I have an outlet; a God Who hears my vows. People are like pressure cookers. We need an outlet for our steam, or we will eventually explode. For one young lady, that explosion took on tragic implications. For those of us who have God, who have that outlet, we have Someone we can let off our inner steam with. He knows anyway. He hears our vows. He hears.......You.