It
was the spring of 1973, and Evie and I were soon
to be married. The time had come for me to find a
home for us to rent, though it seemed an
impossible task. The rental market in the
Washington, DC area was practically frozen, and
my salary with Sons of Thunder was barely at a
subsistence level.
Finding an apartment within our
price range would be hard enough. But since a
small home was better suited for our ministry
activities, I decided to try to see if I could
possibly find one we could afford. For one long,
discouraging day, I drove through neighborhood
after neighborhood, but didn't spot a single
modest-sized home for rent. Finally, I came to
the rural community of Poolesville, Maryland.
Instinctively I liked the town. Yet my search had
been so futile till then, that it seemed
pointless to look any further.
After making an anxious prayer, I
decided at least to drive through the town before
calling it quits. At the end of a street of new
townhomes I was startled to see a "For
Rent" sign hanging in the window of one of
the units. I thought I was seeing a mirage. Small
townhouses simply weren't available for rent in
Montgomery County at that time.
I hurried to the real estate
office several blocks away, and found that the
home was just within the limits we could afford.
Within a day I had the lease.
It turned out to be an excellent
living situation for Evie and me as a young
married couple. During the year that we lived
there, we worked with youth in a local church,
and developed friendships which endure to this
day.
When I think of how God provided
for us that year, it's embarrassing to remember
how discouraged I had allowed myself to become
while house-hunting. I had nearly convinced
myself that God wasn't interested in meeting this
need in my life. I came within a hair's breadth
of not taking that one further step which opened
me up to his gracious provision.
Miracles Come in Many Forms
This incident is one of those
special ones I like to recall when I'm facing a
problem that seems to have no solution. It helps
me appreciate that I shouldn't be too quick to
think God doesn't have an answer. I'm reminded
that God not only is abundantly able to meet my
needs, but willing to work in exceptional ways to
do so when necessary.
So much of Scripture, it seems,
is written to lift us to this higher conviction
about God's role in our lives. It's a pervasive
theme of Scripture that the God who created the
rules of nature, can bend them when needed to
accomplish his purposes. Time and again we seem
him performing miracles in people's lives.
Reflecting on these examples can help move us
beyond the limits we tend to place upon how God
might choose to work in our own life.
It helps us, too, not to think
too narrowly about what constitutes a miracle.
It's easy enough to regard some events as
miracles. When someone's cancerous tumor
disappears overnight without explanation, even an
agnostic physician will concede that a miracle
has taken place.
But what about incidents like my
finding the rental home in Poolesville--those
remarkable times when we succeed unexpectedly,
even though the odds are stacked against us?
Should we regard these as miracles also? Or is it
stretching things--even audacious--to do so? Are
we on better ground merely to look upon them as
fortunate circumstances?
Personally, I believe we should
regard such as events as miracles, and even err
on the side of assuming a miracle has taken place
when we aren't certain. For one thing, to think
of them this way is reverent. It deepens
our awareness that God has helped us, and
strengthens our conviction that he will take care
of us in the future.
It is often more logical,
too, to consider these events as miracles than
merely unusual coincidences. To assume a
coincidence requires us to come up with a
complicated or convoluted explanation of what
happened. If we accept that miracles are
possible, at least, then usually the most natural
conclusion in these cases is that one has
occurred.
Faith Vs. Presumption
I don't deny that our expectation
of miracles can take on unhealthy dimensions. The
compulsive gambler, who against all odds believes
he will win the high stakes, has a strong belief
in miracles. So does the person who refuses to
work yet assumes that God will provide for his
needs. So does the intoxicated person cruising at
eighty-five miles per hour who imagines that God
will protect him. None of these people, though,
even comes close to displaying faith in the
biblical sense.
While the Scriptures challenge us
to a deeper conviction about miracles, they
emphasize just as strongly our need to take
responsibility, to be good stewards of our lives
and to grow in our ability to solve problems. If
there are obvious steps I can take toward meeting
a need, I am presumptuous to expect God to
provide for it in a more direct, miraculous way.
I am likewise naive to expect him to shield me
miraculously from the effects of reckless
behavior. While he protects us in countless ways
from unexpected problems that arise, we cannot
expect him to come to our aid if we deliberately
court disaster.
At the other extreme, though, are
countless situations where we've made a
reasonable effort to act responsibly, and yet are
facing unexpected challenges. Here, without some
confidence in God's providing miraculously, we
may fail to take the additional steps that
position us to succeed.
Some expectation of the
miraculous is also healthy--often necessary--when
we weigh taking steps with our life in cases
where our possibility of success seems good. No
matter how carefully we plan a venture, we almost
always encounter problems that we didn't
anticipate, which stretch us to the limit. The
fear of these unforeseen obstacles can discourage
us from even getting started; the "what
if's?" can paralyze us. Believing that God
loves us enough to bail us out of unexpected
predicaments can make the difference in our
finding the courage to go ahead.
Bailing Us Out
Once I was scheduled to give a
talk at a church in St. Louis, as part of an
evening series I was presenting there. That day,
as I was doing some last-minute preparation, it
dawned on me that it would help greatly if I
included a certain quote from Bonhoeffer's Life
Together in the talk. Unfortunately, I hadn't
thought to bring that book on the trip with me.
Shortly before the service that
evening, I met with the pastor in his office to
pray. I glanced over the books on the shelves of
his study. Although the odds were infinitesimal
that this book would be one of the thousands of
possible titles he could have included in his
small library, it was there, and I quickly
spotted it! Finding the quote would be another
matter, and it was almost time to speak. But I
guessed at the page, and was right--no small
miracle in itself.
I was able to go ahead and give
my talk with exactly the material I needed, even
though I had thought I would come up short only a
few minutes before.
Now that incident is not exactly
what you would term an extravagant miracle, or a
genuine sign and wonder. It will not go down as
one of the most notable events of my life. But it
did give me an important boost at the time.
Most of us, as we think over our
lives, can recall many similar experiences of
"minor miracles." We set out to do
something, even approached it responsibly, yet
hit an unexpected snag. Help then came in an
unusual way, and God, it seems, bent the rules to
come to our rescue.
I'm not blandly suggesting that
God always rescues us in such instances. He
apportions to us a variety of experiences,
depending on our needs and his purpose for us at
the time. In some cases he allows us to fail, in
order to help us grow, and to recognize where we
need to better prepare in the future. In other
cases he provides for us in ways above and beyond
the ordinary, to deepen our trust in him, and to
strengthen our courage to take steps of faith. We
should reflect often on this latter way that God
works, especially, as this is the area we are
most inclined to overlook or downplay.
Different Miracles for
Different Needs
There is another way of thinking
about miracles which I personally find extremely
helpful. When we look carefully at the ones
described in Scripture, we see that the point at
which God intervenes in a situation of need
differs from case to case.
The way in which his initiative
and others' relate varies as well. Considering
these factors, there are at least four types of
miracles pictured in the Bible. These attest to
the creative variety of ways God meets the
"impossible" situations in people's
lives.
1. The carte blanche miracle.
This is where Christ solves a problem
instantaneously, with virtually no effort
required on a person's part. Most of the healing
miracles pictured in the New Testament are of
this type. Someone suffering the dire effects of
a debilitating illness or deformity is relieved
in an instant of the suffering. This isn't to say
that no response was required from the person. In
the majority of healing miracles it appears that
people either made the effort to present
themselves to Jesus and request healing, or that
someone else did this on their behalf. Yet beyond
this basic step of faith they were passive, and
the miracle resulted entirely from the benevolent
action of Christ.
2. Abundance from meager
provisions. The second type of miracle is
shown in those two situations in the Gospels
where Jesus fed huge crowds of people with a few
fish and loaves of bread. In these cases some
human effort was involved--the providing of a
small amount of food, and the disciples' work in
organizing the crowd and distributing it. Yet
their effort was minuscule compared to the
provision made by Jesus.
These "miracles of
expansion" give us hope not only for those
impossible predicaments where there appears to be
nothing we can do, but for the many situations
where there is at least some small effort we can
make.
There's a wonderful message of
encouragement here for those of us who teach. So
often we feel about as prepared to feed a group
spiritually as the disciples did when they had to
feed the enormous crowd with a handful of fish
and loaves. We say, "Lord, there's no way I
can do it!" Yet Christ is addressing us as
he did his disciples, saying, "You give them
something to eat" (Mk 6:37). If you're like
me, you've often sensed that Christ's provision
in a teaching situation has gone far beyond your
preparations.
3. A sudden lift toward our
goal. This third miracle is the one which
intrigues me most. John records a time when
Jesus' disciples make a valiant effort to row
across a lake in the face of a difficult storm,
with the winds against them (Jn 6:16-21). They
have completed the greater part of their journey
when Jesus suddenly appears, walking on the
water. He steps into the boat and they are
instantly at the shore.
In working on various projects
I've sometimes had experiences which seem to
parallel this incident. I've poured myself into
an undertaking for some time, still expecting
some major challenges, when through some
unexpected serendipity the goal is suddenly
reached.
Here the message seems to be that
we shouldn't give up too easily. God honors our
tenacity and perseverance. At any point he can
give us sudden acceleration toward our goal.
4. Strength for the long haul.
The fourth miracle is reflected in the words of
God to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 29:5:
"During the forty years that I led you
through the desert, your clothes did not wear
out, nor did the sandals on your feet." In
certain situations God chooses not to make things
too easy for us. He allows us to run the full
course toward reaching a goal. Yet the miracle is
that our strength holds out, whereas we thought
it wouldn't, and the provisions which we were
certain would wear out, or give out, long before
we reached our goal end up being sufficient.
Certainly most of our experiences of going
through college and other formal educational
programs fit this pattern well!
We should meditate often not only
on the fact of Christ's miracles but on the
variety of those he performs. Doing so will help
keep us from the presumptuous spirit of thinking
we know precisely how he will solve a problem,
for we'll be reminded that he brings his grace to
bear on our lives in a multitude of ways. Yet it
will also keep us optimistic about receiving that
grace, and encourage us to take the steps
necessary to receive his provision for our needs.
We can take heart, too, from the
wonderful reminder that sometimes the answer to a
pressing problem is only a step away.
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