I am not always a believer that God will personally come down and make something good happen every time there are struggles in my life. I know God loves me and that I am a loved son of the Father (that is my image), but I don’t expect to be rescued when things go wrong. I think that God grants us freedom and free will and promises to be with us, not to be our bodyguard or personal servant all the time. But sometimes, our God of surprise, does that...surprises me.
Several very challenging things have happened in the last few days with several people. I have had a couple of really bad days, a number of things that I rely on breaking down a bit.
I asked God today for some sense of what I am supposed to do with these tough situations. I prayed, "Could I get some word from You that lets me know that this will be okay or some word that lets me know where to go next with my situation?"
It is pretty rare that I pray so hard for a personal concern. I then at the end prayed the prayer I usually use: "Lord, send me the knowledge of Your will and the power to carry it out."
I had finished that prayer and was sitting at my desk with my eyes closed when one of the volunteer staff walked into my office and asked me what was wrong. I gave them the thirty-second version. They said to me, "Have you ever considered (this idea)?"
Boom. It was if God had just walked in and said, "Here ya go, kid. Who says I don’t show up on your doorstep?" It was a moment of clarity that I was in desperate need of. The idea, one I had only vaguely looked at before, suddenly was THE answer I needed.
How about that "lets me know that this will be okay" part? On my way home, the radio station played five past parish retreat them songs in a row:
"Blurry."
"Superman,"
"He’s Everything You Want,"
"Crawling in the Dark"
and "Wherever You Will Go."
Ahem, BOOM again.
"There ya go, kid...
