My Weird God Story: The Sequel

So back to point #2, which if you missed it is on last Friday's blog. The question was: Why are our weird God stories considered weird?

I have been a Christian for just about 28 years, and I'm sliding into 50 years old very soon. Prior to accepting Christ, I had never read a single bible verse, and can recall going to church exactly once as a kid, of course on Easter. I was clueless to what I like to call "Christian protocol". Everything was brand new. I soon found out that there were "rules" to Christianity. No, not the Beatitudes, not the 10 Commandments, none of those things. But I did not know the "rules", so I just thought I was to trust Jesus for everything. Silly me...

I can remember praying for things and they happened. I thought that was what you did. I had been saved about three weeks when I had to go to work, taking the bus and it was pouring rain. No umbrella (duh, guys don't have umbrellas when their 20-30 years old!). I prayed "Lord, I know this sounds vain, but I don't want to get soaked. Can you please stop the rain." Yep, I prayed that. Dumb I know. Must have been a coincidence that it stopped raining as I stepped out my apartment door and started a down pour the second I stepped under the eve of the garage at the bus stop. I mean a deluge. I told some people at the church I was going to about it, because Ithought it was cool. Uhh, that 'coolness' was not shared. That is when I learned the "don't put God to a foolish test rule". And here I thought it was just this Jesus I was learning about teaching me to cast ALL my cares upon him. Won't make that mistake again.....

I could name countless other instances like that. Weird stuff. Really weird stuff. But you know who I gave the praise to for those answers to prayer? No one, because I had learned that you don't share that weird stuff. Sure, pray over your food (that's another post later!), pray for people to 'get better' (as opposed to outright cured), and for lots of safe things. That became my God Box; I could believe on God for safe and sure things, but for the weird: no.

And yet I read scripture and see Jesus and His disciples performing signs and wonders (Rom 15:19, 2Cor 12:12, Acts 14:3 and I could list tons more). In John 14:12, Jesus himself promises that His believers will do "greater works than these". Were these words and wonders just meant for the early church? I don't see that in scripture at all.

So why is that we don't share our 'weird' God stories with others; believers and non-believers alike? Is it related back to the first point of the 'weird God story' blog; that we want to make Jesus as palatable as possible for our society? I mean if you won't go preaching about a God who dies and lives again, you sure are not going to share about a God who heals the sick, raised the dead, made the blind to see. No, that would be too weird to believe in....at least till you get someone "saved"; and then you can share those stories. I would choose the opposite, and recently had that chance at work.

See, my car blew a head gasket, after 162,000 miles. Big smoke from the hood of the car. Raised the 'bonnet' and saw the bad news. Had a friend come by (thanks KG!) and sure enough, the dip stick pulled out had a nice light chocolate brown foam all the way up the stick. Great color if your painting your living room, but not good if your an engine. Radiator drained as well. So I pulled the car into the church parking lot at ALC (yes, by shear coincidence, it let go right in FRONT of the church). Eventually KG and I went to tow the car home. KG has a truck and tow rope, so we were good to go, except I had pulled in front end first. So to hook the rope up, needed to back the car up. Started it up and backed up. At this point, being a guy took over, which is generally not a good thing. I looked at KG and asked how far he thought it would go till it blew up? Kind of like that Seinfeld episode where Kramer drives the car past empty. So being guys we said 'let's find out, and when it stops we will tow from there'. Off I went in a cloud of smoke. I mean a huge giant cloud of smoke. So much smoke coming out the back that I thought KG was not behind me. Embarrassing amounts of smoke. I thought: give it a block or two. Did I mention yet that the engine rattled like an empty spray can of paint? Many empty cans of spray paint? So off I go down the road and I get to Foster. I'm praying it does not stop on Foster. Pulled out, went about 25 yards, and you guessed it.....the smoke stopped. The rattle stopped. Yeah, I bet you didn't guess that either? I thought "Hmmm that's weird". And kept driving. Came to Cheldrain (or whatever its called) and turned right. Alright, made it off Foster, now it can die and it will be okay. A nice side street. But the car kept going, not loosing power. "Hmmm, that's weird" I thought. Then came to 190th, to turn left. Another busy street. Got to go for it now, half way home! Two stop signs ahead of me. Suddenly, the temperature gauge started to go up, pretty darn quickly. 'That's it. No water in the radiator, better find a place to pull over." And there it was, just ahead, a very nice big turn lane. But for some unexplained reason, the temperature gauge went from its just over half-way position back down to cold. "Hmmm that's weird" I thought. No smoke, no rattle, no over-heating, no loss of power. Suddenly I was one street from home, one last left to make. Still going. Pull in front of the house. KG is behind me, gets out with this grin on his face. He said he was sure I was going to blow up when I pulled out of the church. We opened the bonnet, expecting to see oil sprayed on the engine, just like those NASCAR guys have. Nothing...."Hmmm that's weird" I thought.

So two days later at work, a lady I work next to ask how the tow went. Right there I was faced with my God Box. Did I share what really happened, or did I say "got it home". So I told her the whole story. And there she stood, staring at me. I know she could have thought I was nuts. She could have blown the whole thing off as a coincidence. Instead she paused and said "boy someone was watching over you". And it gave me the chance to say: "I didn't know Jesus was a mechanic too". There I did it, took God right out of the box I keep Him in, and surely out of the box she has God in. HE was set out big as could be for her to evaluate.

So I will choose to believe bigger things from God. Men's Frat says a Man of God expects Gods Great Rewards. If only I will keep Him out of my God Box.

Maybe that is weird, or maybe I'm just nuts to you!