Life At The Well

I need to read some 1 Kings 19 again... get reminded about ole' Elijah. This week I came down from a Holy Week high -- I mean last week was full of Him .. worship, sweet communion, powerful reflective time. Then I ran straight down from Mt. Carmel and into the desert! What gives? I've stressed, I've been distracted, I'm fatigued ... and the line forming to bear witness to my Christlikeness is pretty short.

I am reminded of (a) how intentional I'm supposed to be. (yeah, never had to learn that one before!) and (b) how vital kingdom relationships are. Man I can convince myself of almost anything ... even things I know are wrong. Since I had neither been intentional nor very reliant on my friends, I had about decided to just get good and irritated at myself and the world. And then a funny thing happened on the way to my pity party. Just as I was choosing to dive into a deep ole' funk of guilt and recrimination -- I got a message that my best friend's little boy, who has been hospitalized in Critical Care at Cincinnati Children's since December 25th ... cried. No big deal to you, but his showing emotion (for the first time in 4 months) was a sign to doctors that his brain damage (from seizures) was improving. Mysteriously. Inexplicably. Miraculously.

It made me think ... I have prayed for miracles when I did not receive what I thought I needed. And even this God-given improvement is no guarantee of the little fella's future ... but for today, it was enough that God showed up. Elijah got in the deep doo-doo of despair because he started playing the 'what if' game. He stopped engaging God in the present .. in the moment.. and began wondering what was going to happen tomorrow.

That's me this week I realized. There are no future miracles ...only the miracles God chooses to work in the here and now. Those miracles aren't always healings and deliverance .. sometimes they are miracles of a friend's encouragement. Sometimes the peace of being fully yielded to the Spirit. Places where the resurrection that we celebrated last week is given opportunity to bring new life.

And nothing is more miraculous than that.

Peace.