Miracles

Orig 01/05/09

How often we pray “Lord, hear me”. What a silly prayer. Of course He hears us. In fact, He hears even the words we do not say – He reads our hearts. Rather than pray for Him to hear our words, better that we pray to hear HIS words. For we concentrate on him hearing us, and so little on our hearing him. We need a conversation with God, and so we need to listen. For what He has to say to us is so much more important than our words to Him. Listen!!

The problem is that we find if difficult to be humble. We are so focused on ourselves, our needs, our wants. Why not ask Him what HE wants? Why He created us? For what purpose we were put here? Now, at this time?

There is a play written in the 60’s titled “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”. The two main characters of R&G were minor characters in the play Hamlet, who were killed in that play for no reason they understood. In R&G, the opening scene showed one of the characters finding a coin, and flipping it while talking with the other. “That’s 50 times in a row now that it’s come up heads; that’s most curious”. The other character takes the coin, checks both sides, and hands it back. As they continue, they talk about fate, and what has happened in their life. And the coin flipping and counting continues: 51, 52, 53.

I have some good Christian friends who say they believe in miracles: Christ’s resurrection, the blind made to see, the miracle of the feed of 5000 with 12 loaves of bread. Yet they flock to any preacher, any book, or any movie which says it didn’t happen that way -- there is a reasonable explanation. If you discuss the movie with them, they’ll agree “Of course, I know the movie is fiction; I believe God works miracles … but maybe …”

Faith means believing without seeing. Even though I didn’t see Christ rise from the dead, I believe He did. Even though I didn’t witness the Nazi’s slaughtering of millions of Jews, I believe they did. It’s not too difficult, however, to find people who don’t believe in either event. Why?

Do you believe in miracles? Really? Or are you like some of my friends, who believe … but … are open to hearing alternative explanations. They will look into things contrary to their “faith”, seeking support for the most bizarre explanations, but not look at their “faith” with the same interest. They’ll read books about how Martians might have murdered Jews in WWII, but not go to look at the death camps, the lists of names, the pictures, the witnesses’ books. They’ll believe that Jesus’ rise from death “might” really have been faked, because a movie said so, but not read the words of many historical documents of those who say not that it might have happened, but they saw, they spoke with those who saw, and who believed so much that they died willingly to proclaim it happened. I wonder how many movie or book writers would willingly die in support of what they say “might have happened”?

So what of our faith, in Jesus then and now, and in miracles then and now? Jesus’ miracles then stoked the flames of faith, that people might believe and believe stronger. Many of his miracles were worked on people who said “I believe”, and who asked. He said if you ask with faith, you could move mountains. Do you believe in miracles today? What would it take for you to REALLY believe in Jesus and His promises? How many wonderful things must happen in your life for you to say “I believe”? Or are you like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who see 50 coin flips of “heads” and say: “That’s most curious”.

I know some people who would look at 5 coin flips in a row of “heads” and proclaim it’s a miracle, and I know of some, sadly, who would look at 50 thousand flips of “heads” in a row and say: “Well, it’s just the odds; somewhere else the odds are someone is flipping 50 thousand “tails” in a row”. These same people believe there really “might” be an alternative universe where an infinite number of monkeys are now sitting at an infinite number of typewriters typing out all the works of Shakespeare. No matter how bizarre, they’ll accept anything which can be explained by natural reason, natural senses, before they’ll accept God or miracles of His love in our lives.

How sad.

They’ll accept the possibility of infinite universes of dumb monkeys before they’ll accept one spiritual universe of a living, loving God. How weak is their faith, how limited their reasoning, how alone they must feel.