God, I need a Miracle

God, I need a miracle, but perhaps I need something more, and that is what God offers me and you. Something of depth and hope.

There are times in life when there is a cry from the heart for a miracle. It’s that diagnosis, the loss of a job, a relationship breakdown, a financial loss. Search your heart, and you will know the times when you have cried out, ‘God, I need a miracle.’

What’s a miracle?

One definition describes a miracle as ‘an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs—eg the healing miracles described in the Gospels.

The word miracle comes from words such as mīror (“to wonder at”), from mīrus (“wonderful”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meyh₂- (“to smile, to be astonished”).

A miracle should cause you to be astonished, smile and wonder. It should cause you to think about something beyond yourself.

Take note that in these definitions, there is no sense of a time frame. We add the time frame, which is usually in the impatient NOW!

We, like impatient demanding toddlers, want it all, and we want it now.

But we look at the stories of Jesus and see the immediacy of people being healed, bread and fishes being multiplied, people being raised from the dead, etc.

We see the outcome, the cessation of struggle, and we want it now, now, now. Yet in God’s poetic economy of time, ‘a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.’ 2 Peter 3:8

Still, we pray and beg and plead for miracles. We sing, fast, give, and stand on our heads. We are much like those prophets of Baal dancing around the sacrifice, thinking that if they dance more, their God will do the miracle. 1 Kings 18:26-29

Perhaps that version of God has to die or at least be told to leave the building.

Something sad within me gets touched when I sense people are waiting for the miracle to happen. They use language that speaks to some sort of magic God. They are waiting for God’s magic wand to be swept over their problem so that with an ‘Abracadabra,’ the problem disappears.

I want a miracle, but actually, I want to know God more than the relief of earthly struggle, and that is where the tension is. Better life or deeper knowing.

The miracle may not happen according to my terms of reference. The cancer may not go away, the marriage may continue to crumble, and a hard heart refuses to soften to grace.

I do believe in miracles.

I believe in miracles, but they may come in the small unobserved experiences we have every day. They may not be in the time frame I demand, but they will always be in God’s time frame.

I suppose I mostly see the miracles in Mental Health recovery when the movement is small. Microscopically small. As small as a brain neuron being grown in a new direction. A new thinking habit is born in all its vulnerability, but then it is nurtured and cared for and grows into a deep abiding change.

Is that a miracle?

I have seen people change from deep despair and loss to being confident in God and having incredible hope. Did the miracle happen overnight? No. But Spirit (Holy) was on the move through the brain’s grey matter.

The addict, once entrenched in the addiction, has a brain change and walks free. In my mind, that’s a miracle.

God flies a helicopter.

You may have heard of the story of the drowning man and how God sends many helpers to him.

Here is one version.

A storm descends on a small town, and the downpour soon turns into a flood. As the waters rise, the local preacher kneels in prayer on the church porch, surrounded by water. By and by, one of the townsfolk comes up the street in a canoe.

“Better get in, Preacher. The waters are rising fast.”

“No,” says the preacher. “I have faith in the Lord. He will save me.”

Still, the waters rise. Now the preacher is up on the balcony, wringing his hands in supplication when another guy zips up in a motorboat.

“Come on, Preacher. We need to get you out of here. The levee’s gonna break any minute.”

Once again, the preacher is unmoved. “I shall remain. The Lord will see me through.”

After a while, the levee breaks, and the flood rushes over the church until only the steeple remains above water. The preacher is up there, clinging to the cross, when a helicopter descends out of the clouds, and a state trooper calls down to him through a megaphone.

“Grab the ladder, Preacher. This is your last chance.”

Once again, the preacher insists the Lord will deliver him.

And, predictably, he drowns.

A pious man, the preacher, goes to heaven. After a while, he gets an interview with God, and he asks the Almighty, “Lord, I had unwavering faith in you. Why didn’t you deliver me from that flood?”

God shakes his head. “What did you want from me? I sent you two boats and a helicopter.” The Parable of the Drowning Ma n

The helicopter and the boat may well be some medication, budgeting advice, counseling, and wisdom from seasoned travelers.

The miracles of partnership

It seems that many people want the miracle but without the effort and trust of a partnership. ‘Fix my problem, God, but on my terms.’

And God says, ‘Fine, but I work through faith and my people. Are you willing to trust me in this?’

It could be the partnership of a doctor, counselor, pastor, spiritual director, budget advisor, pharmacist, etc.

There is no shame in asking for help. Even Jesus needed others to help him. Jesus asked a woman to draw water from a well. Why didn’t he cause it to spring up and flood him? He had all the power to do this, but he didn’t. He needed her to give what she could provide. He still does.

Partnerships offered where a supernatural ‘miracle’ was seen as more important than a deep knowing of God.

Jesus, to assuage his hunger, was taunted by the satan to turn stones into bread.

In a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in the first test: “Since you are God’s Son, speak the word that will turn these stones into loaves of bread.”

Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to stay alive. It takes a steady stream of words from God’s mouth.” Matthew 4:3, 4

Jesus could have made his life easier and performed the miracle of turning stones into bread, but knowing God’s spiritual sustenance was of more importance.

What is the ‘helicopter’ being offered to you?

I’ve seen people drown in mental unwellness because they kept waiting for God to do the ‘miracle.’

Help has been offered, advice suggested, but they kept on demanding and pleading with God to do something God wasn’t willing to do.

The miracle might be seen in some medication, some support, mentoring, and advice.

It doesn’t have to be grand and over the top to make it not from God.

Elijah found that God was in the whisper and not the storm. 1 Kings 19:11-13

What is the small that is being offered to you?

Quotes to consider

There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us. When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve and die. The death by which we enter into life is not an escape from reality but a complete gift of ourselves which involves a total commitment to reality. Thomas Merton Thoughts in Solitude
Where there is great love there is always miracles. Willa Cather
The spiritual life begins with accepting and living our reality. Richard Rohr
Integrating the fullness of the human condition into one’s spiritual practice is what leads to emotional sobriety. Ingrid Mathieu
Although incredibly seductive, anything that promises the light without acknowledging the shadow isn’t telling the whole story. Ingrid Mathieu
We are drawn to the light just like a flower to the sun. However, unless we stay rooted, plugged into the dirt, we won’t be able to survive. Ingrid Mathieu

Questions to consider

Why are ‘Miracles’ so emotionally seductive?
What miracles have happened in your life that you may have overlooked as miracles?
What’ helicopters’ and ‘lifeboats’ do you not notice because you are waiting for the supernatural?