Miracles

Ever say anything so deeply profound, for you, that you just have to repeat it elsewhere and you stand in awe of yourself and your fantastically amazing brain? Well, that's where I am now, basking in awe of...me. I often say things that leave the college-kid shaking his head. I can say things that make me really wish I had a huge roll of duck tape handy, after I pull my feet out of my mouth. I can preach a sermon that leaves me wondering, "Lord, where did that come from?"

Hmmmm....OK, maybe I better stop and remember the Source of where my amazingly astounding thoughts come from, because they sure don't originate in my brain!

So, what was this astute observation? I was writing an item to go with a song I was posting on the Melanoma Prayer Center, and I'm writing about miracles. This is the post:

Sometimes we want a miracle and let's face it, with melanoma, the miracle we want is to be cured from it and to rest assured that we'll live a long, healthy life free from it. We want a miracle of not dying before "we" say it's time. We can't call the shots of what our miracle looks like! We already ARE miracles! We already ARE surrounded by miracles! Maybe, the miracle is having faith even when we don't get the miracle we pray for.

"Maybe, the miracle is having faith even when we don't get the miracle we pray for." Did that come from me?! Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes that there's nothing new under the sun and I'm sure that's true. And I'm equally sure that plenty of other people have figured out that keeping the faith in the face of dire circumstances that keep getting worse and end in ways that we don't pray for is a miracle.  But, I never thought of it that way!

My feeble attempts at understanding stopped short. I stopped with "keeping the faith in the face of dire circumstances that are playing out in ways contrary to my prayers and wishes is...keeping the faith." That was the limit of my understanding until God moved and stretched my way of thinking.

Sometimes we do pray for a miracle. We need that miracle. We know exactly what that miracle must look like and we know we needed it yesterday. We can feel our faith losing ground but we're holding on to God because we're just so confidant that God's going to give us our way and that miracle will happen, even if it's at the very last second. So we hold on. Even as we see the chances of the miracle happening slip, fade, disappear altogether...gone forever. Dead. No miracle. Emptiness. Despair. No miracle. Holding on. To What? No miracle. To Who?

God. And maybe, that's the miracle. Holding on to God when we need Him most, sense Him the least, feel alone the most. Growing in our spiritual understanding that God, not us, is in control...even when we don't like the outcome and we feel our prayers were ignored and God didn't take our advice on how to behave.

God never gave me the task of being His personal Dear Abby. That's so ludicrous it's laughable! Job tried something like that and it didn't go over too well with God. He doesn't need our consent to act, our advice on how to behave, or our directions on how to move in our lives.

Maybe the miracle is, despite all that, we trust Him anyway. He is everything I am not...

And I am grateful.

Today would have been my Granddaddy's 108th birthday! Hope you and Grandma celebrate with a grand train ride around Heaven!