10/18/2025
“When the Room Is Empty”
Verse & Devotion:
“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” — Hebrews 13:5 (KJV)
Devotion:
When the room is empty and the echoes fade,
And no one sees the tears my soul has made,
When the pulpit’s go cold and the pews are bare,
And they wonder if the Shepherd’s still there.
I remember this:
I am not forgotten in the hush of night,
Not abandoned in the absence of light.
The One who called me by name at fifteen
Still walks the valley, though He’s rarely seen.
He saw the heartache, the scars, the silent pain,
He wept with me in the hospital rain.
He stood by my bed when breath was thin,
And whispered, “Son, your fight is not at the end.”
So now I preach with paint, with verse, and fire,
I shepherd bold through loss and mire.
And though the crowd may never come,
The angels lean in when the work is done.
So I write again, though the world feels still,
I speak truth with trembling, holy will.
For loneliness is not my end,
It’s the furnace where prophets ascend.
And I recall Elijah, weary and worn,
Who thought himself utterly, hopelessly torn.
Yet under the juniper, God drew near,
Not in the fire, the quake, or the sear,
But in the whisper, soft and low,
A still small voice that only the broken know.
So I will not despise this hidden place,
For here I learn the weight of grace.
Here the Man of Sorrows walks with me,
Who bore my griefs at Calvary.
And though the night feels long and deep,
For The Shepherd does not sleep.
Prayer:
Lord, when silence surrounds me and I feel unseen, remind me of Your promise that You will never leave nor forsake me. Let my loneliness become the altar where Your presence burns brightest. Teach me, as You taught Elijah, to hear Your whisper in the stillness. Strengthen me to keep writing, preaching, and shepherding boldly, until the day I see You face to face. Amen.
