Lost in Translation

A couple of weeks ago, Wanda and I were in the car and she decided she wanted to call a friend of hers, who works in the convenience store in Blunt.  We didn’t know the number, so we called directory assistance.  

We did not get a real person, of course.  We got some sort of automated answering machine.  It asked “What city and state?”  I responded “Blunt, South Dakota.”  It then asked, “What listing, please?”  I responded, “Medicine Creek convenience store.”

The machine said, “That’s ServiceMaster of Sioux Falls, right?”

I was amazed.  I couldn’t even get upset.  I eventually got to talk to a human being and got the right number, but still this was incredible.  I don’t know how anyone, even a machine, gets “ServiceMaster of Sioux Falls” out of “Medicine Creek convenience store”.

Do you ever feel like your prayers work like that?  You pray for something, and you think it’s clear what you’ve asked God to do.  And then God does something that has nothing to do with what you asked for.  It may not even be in the same zip code as what you asked for.  And you think, “God, how in the world did you get that out of what I prayed for? 

It can be frustrating.  We make a request to God that we see as perfectly reasonable and appropriate.  A request that would really help.  A request that we think would be best not just for us, but for everyone.  We cannot see a downside to it.  And then God does something completely different, and we cannot understand it.  We cannot imagine what God might be up to.

And that’s when we find out.  That’s when we find out how much faith and trust we really have in God.  When we make what seems to us a request that should meet with God’s approval, a request that we think would benefit so many people, and God goes in a completely different direction.  That’s when we find out if we really trust God enough to go with God in that different direction, or if we’re going to stay where we are and get upset with God for not doing things our way.

You know what the answer should be.  It’s not always easy, of course.  We get disappointed.  We get discouraged.  We get confused.  We don’t understand what God is doing.  We know that we should trust God, but--we’re just not sure we can.  

I’m reminded of a scene from Doctor Who.  The Doctor says to his friend, “Amy, I need you to trust me.”  Amy says, “But you don’t always explain things to me.”  And the Doctor responds, “If I could explain everything to you, I wouldn’t need you to trust me.”

God cannot always explain everything to us.  We probably wouldn’t understand the explanation if God did.  And so, we need to trust God, even when we’re confused, and even when we don’t understand.

I hope you can do that.  I hope I can, too.  Even when God does not do what we asked, even when what God does seems to have no relationship to what we asked, I hope you can trust God.  I hope I can, too.