I’ll do it!

One evening recently I was driving with my kids to keep an appointment. We where driving in an area in which I had never been before. They hadn’t eaten dinner yet and we didn’t have much more than a few minutes to spare if we were to keep our appointment. I had planned that we would find a McDonald’s, hit the drive-through and be on our way. Everyone would be happy and an important appointment would be kept.

And I was good. Better than I am sometimes: I didn’t worry about finding a McDonald’s; I simply asked God from the outset to find us one. No worries.

But here we were, twenty minutes into our thirty minute trip and no fast food, certainly no McDonald’s. And a worry appeared. “What if God doesn’t show us a place to get some food?” I thought. And then my very next thought: “Well, then I’ll have to get off this highway and find us some food.”

WHAT?? WHAT?? If God doesn’t provide, I will?? Have I no understanding of God?? Do I have such a highly exalted view of myself that I believe I can succeed when God fails??

Wow. I'm thankful that at least I recognized the craziness of my thinking. May I always remember that, if God doesn’t answer my prayer the way I expect or like Him to, it’s definitely because He has something better in mind.

(P.S. God did find us food (surprise, surprise!) but it wasn't McDonald's. So, in addition to this being a lesson for me, it also became a teachable moment with my son – who I discovered thought that anything other than McDonald's is completely unacceptable.)

Good Disasters

Just the other day I went for a very long bike ride. Half-way into the outward-bound leg of the journey I got a flat tire. Bad. I started walking. I met a man who told me there was a bike repair shop about three miles away – if it still existed. This was going to take hours. But I kept walking.

I came to a gas station. No help there. But while I stood around searching for bike repair shops on my iTouch, two separate people, in the midst of their own disasters, stopped to ask for directions. I was able to not only give them the direction they were seeking but, as we talked, I was also able to give them some additional advice about the problems they were experiencing – I had been their way before.

Back to walking. This time it occurred to me to ask God for a miracle – an angel, someone – anyone – who could help me.

Within two minutes I came upon another problem, another potential disaster: a traffic light was out on the busy road on which I was walking. And elderly lady had stationed herself in the intersection, directing traffic in an attempt to prevent an accident. She came over to me to talk and, before I knew it, she was offering to give me a ride to a bike repair shop.

I don't pretend to know all the good that God did that day in those situations but I do know that, had my tire not blown, had those two people not gotten lost, and had that particular traffic light not failed, the four of us would not have enjoyed the blessings we did. Oh, sure, we would have gone through the day without those difficulties but we certainly would not have know the pleasure of helping each other or of seeing God's hand at work. In fact, we probably wouldn't have noticed that the day had gone smoothly – we would have expected it.

Sure, these were very minor problems compared to the fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, oil spills, etc. that some people experience. I've experienced one or two “real” disasters in my life. But as with my experience on my bike, I've become convinced that God can and does work unimaginable good through what can often seem to be a unredeemable, unmitigated disaster.

Rescue

There was man who lived near the Mississippi river. As sometimes happens, the river overflowed its banks completely flooding the town in which this man lived. There was no hope of driving or running away from the water: it eventually came as high as the second floor of his house. Fortunately, the local sheriff’s department was able to rescue him using a helicopter.

And, boy, was that cool! The helicopter took him straight up, right out of danger, away from the water – and the helicopter ride itself was maybe the best thing about whole experience.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, about five years later the mighty Miss flooded the town, once again stranding our hero on the roof of his house. For whatever reason, this time the sheriff’s helicopter was unavailable so the would-be rescuers came for him in a boat. However, the man politely declined the boat because he knew the sheriff had a helicopter and that method of rescue, he knew from first-hand experience, was much preferable to being saved by a boat. The boat wasn’t as fun or cool and besides, the boat didn’t actually take you up and away from the flood, it just brought you through it until you reached a place of safety. It also took longer. Bottom line: he would wait for the helicopter.

I’m not sure how the story ended. I don’t know if the man drowned, got wet or eventually agreed to be rescued by the boat. I still don’t know why, but I do know the helicopter never came.

If you read my earlier post (“’Innocent’ Mistakes”), you know that God sovereignly and instantaneously delivered me one day from a thirty-three year habit that I was a slave to. When He suggested recently that we get rid of another area of weakness (eating too much), I was willing and waiting. Waiting for the helicopter of instantaneous deliverance. But God chose to suggest a different path – one that wasn’t nearly as flashy, cool, or quick and one which, frankly, I was pretty sure would not work. I argued – fortunately, in this case for not too long – and then gave in, still sure it wouldn’t work.

Guess what? It did – or maybe I should say, it is – because day by day I am eating a fraction of what I had been eating. It’s not that I’ve lost all interest in food (that would not be good or God) or wouldn’t like, sometimes, to eat far more than I need to. I’m in the boat, piloted by God, making our way to the shore and away from the dangers of this latest difficulty.

Impending Doom

Been thinking about the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea on dry land. Forget, for a moment, the Egyptian army chasing them – that was just reason they were in the middle of the Red Sea, in the middle of a miracle. The Egyptian Army and the parting of the water were in the past. Right now, they are walking where there should rightfully be very deep water with that very same water piled up like a wall on either side of them.

Ready to come crashing down at any moment.

I mean, fine, God did a great and wonderful thing by parting the water but couldn’t He have made it just go away?? The water’s still here and it looks none too stable and if I mess up or step out of line or bump into it I know, I just know, that water is going to come crashing down killing me and wiping out everything that’s important to me.

It’s like Psalm 91:7: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but the danger will not come near you.” Not come near me? Not come near me?? People are dropping like flies to my left and to my right and the danger will not come near me?

But it doesn’t. God promises. He is faithful. It just looks scary. Yes, very scary. But he takes us through the flood, through the fire, through the really scary bad times. It’s what refines us into pure gold, makes real our faith and conforms us into the likeness of Jesus. After all, He was saved through death, not from it.

When you think about it, it’s the Good News.