Yesterday I put the last coat of sealer on my driveway. The rainstorm that threatened to hit had again passed to the south, so I decided to finish the job. This time I did pray that I would again be spared from any more rain. I finished the job and went to bed, thankful that the sky was still clear. At exactly midnight, I awoke to the sound of rain. This was not just normal rain, it was that hard, loud, violent rain that makes your gutters overflow. I ran out to the driveway and watched the driveway sealer run off my driveway and into my yard. "Great," I thought, "a ruined driveway and dead grass."
At 12:07 the rain had stopped, and I was back in bed. It was over that fast. A tiny rain storm had come to paint my driveway in ugly black and grey polka-dots and now it was gone. I felt like Eeyore with the raincloud following him around. Oh, bother.If something had been broken in the storm, my insurance company would have called it "An act of God." What was up with God last night?
I've often wondered about prayer; it is such a strange and wonderful thing. A finite being with wants and desires communicating with an infinite being with its own wants and desires...
I've often wonder about those experiences in my life where I cry out to God for something in complete faith that He can do it (as complete as I've experienced, at least) and with pure motives (if that's possible) and for something that is intrinsically good... And that thing does not happen. (Disclaimer: My driveway prayer DOES NOT qualify)
Why would God say "NO"? The answers are almost endless:
God does not want that thing that you want.
That thing is not good for you.
That thing will make you sin in some way.
Not having that thing will help you grow in some way.
Not having that thing will help you teach someone else to not have that thing.
In the future you would regret having that thing.
That thing will not do for you what you think it will.
There are two verses from the Bible that are often used in reference to prayer; The first is about how our faith affects what we have power to do (presumably by prayer):
I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20
This was Jesus speaking to the disciples in response to their inquiry about why they could not drive out a demon. Perhaps this is only true for the disciples. If it is true for us, the church is filled with people who have very little faith. I don't know of any mountains that have moved lately. Or could it be that someone with great faith would never ask for something like mountain relocation?
The second verse is said to be about why bad things happen to us:
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
or, as some manuscripts say:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God ...
So whose good is it? Mine? Gods? I've always believed it meant something like: "God makes or allows all things to happen because it is good for His kingdom." The bad things that happen are good for God's kingdom, not for Joe's kingdom. Because I read this verse in this way, my Dad tells me that I don't trust God. Maybe so.
In any case, for some reason, God decided to send a mighty little seven-minute rain storm to ruin the sealer on my driveway. Didn't I have enough faith? Maybe. Was it for my good? Maybe. For his good? Maybe. Will I ever know? Probably not. But what does that mean for the role of Matthew 17:20 and Romans 8:28 in my life?
Oh, bother.
"The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about." -A. A. Milne in The Pooh Book of Quotations
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