I have to tell you the most amazing God story. A friend of mine sells software for a Fortune 500 company, and has consistently been a top three salesman in his region over the last ten years. He doesn’t fit the stereotype, in that he’s not slick or smarmy. Highly relational and extroverted, for sure, but not high-pressured.
About a year ago, his mother fell ill, and her increasing healthcare needs became my friend’s responsibility. He was forced to spend more and more time out of the office and away from potential clients as he dealt with in-home caregivers, health insurance companies, estate management, and the like. Nearing the end of his fiscal year, and still miles away from reaching his quota, he was called before a sort of disciplinary board that included the company’s VP of sales and told that he needed to commit to securing his sales goals or look for another job.
Standing before his superiors, he sensed God’s presence, and calmly but boldly let them know he was going to fulfill his obligations to his mother, and his sales would have to suffer until this ordeal was behind him. As he was sent out of the room while the top dogs convened on his fate, he was sure that he would be let go. Several of his co-workers had been called in on similar matters, and no one had ever survived the gauntlet. An hour later, he was called back into the room, and he braced for the worst. The VP sat him down, looked him squarely in the eye, and said, “You know the company’s policy on failure to meet quota. You’ve taken a stand to prioritize personal matters over job performance. That is commendable. That said, you are fired.”
Cool God story, huh?
Oh wait, that’s not a God story. God stories don’t end that way, do they? What exactly is a “God story” anyway? One that has a satisfying ending? One that helps me sleep at night because the glass slipper actually fit? I think a better question is, what isn’t a God story? What sort of stories exist outside the realm of God’s providence? As a friend recently posed to me, “Is there a single molecule in all of existence that is secular?”
In my experience, phrases such as “God stories” are code for “it all worked out”. I know these should be encouraging to me, but every time I hear one of these, I’m immediately reminded of the gads of instances where no miracle came. By definition, a miracle is an occurrence outside the realm of the natural. Meaning, they don’t happen often. As luck would have it, we live the vast majority of our lives in the “often”.
I loved hearing about the redemption of the YouTube sensation, “the man with the golden voice”. The subsequent domestic dispute with his daughter and quitting rehab – not so much. Watching the Chilean miners exit the earth’s crust after a grueling 69 days literally brought me to tears. But accounts of mistresses and bickering over the money for exclusive story rights left a little stain on the whole affair. The problem with storybook endings is that the story doesn’t really end.
God’s activity in our lives is not evidenced by happy endings. It is evidenced by, well, the fact that He exists. I have to start with the premise that God is real and that He is good. That premise wouldn’t serve me very well on debate team, but it is how I must live my life if I am to remain remotely faithful to God and His cause. True enough, miracles do occur, and I certainly don’t want to denigrate the experience or results of divine intercession. I just don’t believe they are meant to be the slab upon which we build our understanding of God. If I look to circumstances alone (see “God stories”) to bolster my faith, then I will tend to live each day in utter despair. But if I make the conscious decision to believe that the unseen holds far more promise than what I can rationalize with my senses, then God seems much more reliable. Even if “the man with the golden voice” isn’t.
Goodness! I love it! :)
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