THE GIFT OF DESPERATION

What Happens When We Run Out

DAY 1: THE QUESTION OF MIRACLES

Read God's Word

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

(John 1:1-14)

Reflect and Respond

Miracles started out for me as a problem to be solved.

I'm a scientist by training. I spent much of my undergraduate years in a science lab: experimenting, observing, and writing up hypotheses about the evidence found. About halfway through college I experienced a radical change of direction that took me from medicine to ministry. God got my attention in some pretty significant ways — some of which I would even call miraculous — communicating that I'd be serving Him in ministry, not medicine. But even though my calling changed, the way my brain works did not.

Here's what I mean: I'm still pretty analytical by nature, and sometimes I find myself applying the scientific method to the work of ministry. I've even caught myself approaching pastoral counseling as if experimenting in a lab! (There's nothing more comforting than pouring your heart out to your pastor about your problems and hearing this response, "Well, let's lay out the possible variables in this system and hypothesize the quantitative change they might enact on the observed outcomes.")

OK, so I don't actually say it out loud, but I do sometimes have a hard time remembering that human nature is not a scientific or measurable quantity. I've discovered that God made me just the way I am — analytical and science-minded — and God has plans to use every bit of who I am to serve Him. I had an idea of who I was and what I would do with my life; who I am didn't change, but God had in mind something very different for me to do. Even when God changes the direction of our lives, He still uses the way we're wired to serve Him.

When I read the miracle stories in the Bible, I sometimes find myself putting my scientist's hat on. Scientists ask questions and look for answers, and I have a lot of questions.

I wish I were standing next to Moses as the Red Sea parted, holding a tensiometer to measure the surface tension of the water as it pulled away from gravity. I want to be with Jesus at Cana with my test tube to find out just how H2O (water) could possibly become CH3CH2OH (ethyl alcohol). I want to put monitors on Lazarus to see his vital signs as the "beep beep" of a heartbeat appears where once there was none.

I'm in good company. We see many people in the Bible asking questions about God's miraculous acts and promises to do amazing, seemingly impossible things.

Moses, Zechariah, and Mary had questions too. When it comes to the miraculous, we tend to ask two common questions.

Two Common Questions

1. How? My own desire to measure miracles is really birthed out of a desire to answer the many questions they raise. Most of my questions about the miracles are "how" questions. How are these things possible? How do miracles occur? How did God do that?

2. Why? The deeply emotional side of me (it's in there battling it out with the analytical side) also has questions about miracles. Mostly they begin with the word why? God, why was this person miraculously healed while a child died? Why did you bring some people back from the dead while others such as your earthly father, Joseph, or your cousin John the Baptist died during your lifetime? Why do you answer some prayers for miracles and not others? If you are like me, at one time or another you have found yourself staring out into the sky as you cry out to God, "Why?"

We all have how and why questions. They are part of our human experience and curiosity, and in truth, they are sometimes what drives us to God for answers. But when I read the Bible, it seems that the how and why questions aren't the first ones to be answered. Most often, we see miracles answering the question of who.

A Third Question: Who

I believe it's the who question that puts the how into perspective and gives us a relationship with the One who walks with us through our why moments in life.

What are the who questions that we're talking about?

The disciples' question "Who is this ...?" is the beginning point of the who question. Who is this that can still the wind and the waves, turn water into wine, heal a blind man, raise the dead? But as we read story after story of God's great acts on earth, we begin to ask the psalmist's question "Who is like the LORD our God?" And the answer is clear: No one. No one is like this. No one that I've ever met before. I've never seen anyone walk on water. I've never encountered anyone who could make a river turn to blood. I've never met anyone who speaks through whirlwinds, burnings bushes, and descending doves. I've never seen anyone heal blindness with a touch.

The miracle stories describe a God who is like no one else. They often leave us in awe and wonder.

The miracle stories reveal many things about God, but first and foremost they remind us that God is transcendent. God transcends (surpasses, goes beyond, rises above) all that we see and understand. There is nothing in our finite, earthly experience that prepares us to understand what kind of being God is and what He is capable of. When God speaks in miracles, it tells us that He is beyond everything we understand about our world and our capabilities in it.

A transcendent God, by definition, is hard to see, to touch, to understand, and most significantly, to know. But what if you were a transcendent, all-powerful God who wanted people to know you? What if you were a...