Miracles and Critics

I have been reading A Praying Life by Paul Miller over the last several weeks and meditating on his comparison of a critic to the praying life. Undeniably, I am typically a critic. I pray, but still rationalize the impossibility of an answer in my favor. If my bank account shows a minimum balance, then it is highly unlikely that it will change apart from my own work. God, I am finding, denies all probabilities.

On Monday, I called the Indiana Department of Education to find out when I could expect to hear back about my teaching license. Because I graduated from a school in Virginia, I was required to submit an application for an out-of-state license evaluation. After four weeks, I had not heard anything. When I called, they said it would take at least thirteen weeks. Disappointed, I continued on with my day. Monday night, when I got home after volleyball, I found an e-mail notifying me that my license evaluation had been approved.

This afternoon, I went to the doctor’s office for a physical as a part of my application to go to Papua New Guinea. When the nurse practitioner left the room to write a prescription for my Typhoid Vaccine, she returned with a hundred dollar bill designated for my trip. I was in utter shock. How…Why…I never, even in my wildest dreams, expected support from a complete stranger.

On the way home, I contemplated how I could ever be a critic. God continually pours down blessings upon me, working miracles in my favor. Yet I rationalize, considering answered prayer to be dependent on probability, as if it were a scientific formula. My life is a testimony that God does not confine himself to scientific formulas, but brings glory to Himself by denying probability and dealing in miracles and impossibilities.

Praise the Lord!

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