Yikes! Over a month since my last post! Thankfully not an indication of whether God is at work in my life. . . Just an indication of school being in full swing and life getting a little bit crazy.
I've been thinking a little bit about miracles lately. I was talking to a friend about how I would, just once, like to see a "real" miracle. "Real" being defined as: earth-shattering, mind-boggling, Red Sea-parting, Lazarus rising-from-the-dead OFFICIAL miracle. Because. . . wouldn't that grow my faith? Wouldn't that inspire my passion? Wouldn't that increase my belief? Wouldn't it??
Since the Lord often delights in creating relationships between people who approach ideas from opposite sides of the fence, my friend was not buying into my premise. "I don't think you're thinking this through (knowing me, probably not)," he said. "Oh, don't THINK so hard, just imagine how cool it would be to see a REAL miracle. The Israelites got to see LOTS of miracles (not that it helped their faith all that much). I just want to see one," I said. "Do you really want to be in the position of the Israelites? They weren't out for a walk. The Egyptian soldiers were going to kill them if they didn't cross the Red Sea. The other side was just desert." Oh. Yeah. True enough. And that manna that fell from heaven. . . they had nothing else to eat. The alternative was starvation. And the day the sun stopped, well, slaughter was the other choice. Hmm.
Drat. Why is there always someone wise to make me think? Most of the miracles that leap to my mind from the Bible are a result of God acting when there was no alternative. All avenues and choices were exhausted. Then and only then God moved.
DO I really want to be in that place? The place in the battle of lacking any victory except for the Lord working? The spot at the feet of the crowd reaching for the hem of Jesus' garment to be healed? The seat outside the tomb when someone I love is dead? No doubt I will be brought to those places one way or another sooner than I wish, and I will see the Lord work, either in outward miracle or inward growth and acceptance, but maybe I shouldn't be so eager to "see a miracle" just because I think it would be cool.
In that crazy way the Lord has of bringing things up all at once, the chapter that I just read in "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan also mentions miracles--how God does them to make Himself and His glory know, and how we don't recognize the ones that are all around us.
At the end of the conversation with my friend, the Holy Spirit convicted me (what I like to refer to as a "kick in the behind") that I HAVE seen miracles. I have seen the Lord take my heart, which was hard, hard, HARD, and soften it with His love and grace. When I first began this walk of faith, I was frantic to have a real relationship with Jesus. I despaired of ever reaching that place. Yet, here I am. Not a wow-everyone-look-at-that parting of the waters, but a genuine work of God nonetheless. Those miracles I do want to recognize whenever I see them.
