Small and Simple Love

One of my pet-peeves (aka reminders of the charity I lack) is when people make derisive comments about “key-finding” prayer stories, stories where people pray for something small and testify of how it's answered.

Usually, this criticism is followed by a list of all the terrible things happening in the world. (Why would God do ___ when ___ is happening?) They say it as if they know better, as if their God is limited and such experiences make him sound wish-washy about who he helps and when.

But here’s the deal: God loves you.

I say it a lot, and I have no idea how to get it across in any other way.

HE. LOVES. YOU.

Literally nothing else is going to make any sense until you get that.

When you do know it, it’s amazing. It becomes the core of everything you believe. The one great truth. So, with that in perspective, why the heck would he not give you the opportunity to learn that for yourself?

When you’ve felt that love and see it’s magnificence, why would you deny that someone else? How, when you see someone who developed that testimony through small and simple things, can you criticize them? (I get some people do go overboard, but is it really our job to decide if their experience is worthwhile or not?)

Think of it this way:

Your best friend is running late for school and has a final paper due, but they lost the memory stick it’s saved on and have twenty minutes before class. They did their part, wrote the essay and planned enough time to get it printed on your way to class. But now, they’ve lost it.

You enter the scene and watch. At first, you might wait, thinking they’ll find it since they know best where they left it, but I imagine the more frantic you get, the more likely you’ll be to absolutely start helping or making suggestions, especially if they ask it. Who wouldn’t?

But, there’s war in the middle east! Children are starving all over the world! Natural Disasters! Death!

….

Like, yes. That’s true. And why does that stop you from helping your friend from finding their memory stick???? You helping you friend for half a minute is Not taking away from whatever charitable work you’re also engaged in.

Now, imagine an all knowing and all powerful God, who is not bound by mortal limitation, in the same situation. The ONLY reasons He would not help is if it would be better for us in the long run if He didn’t (ex: we have something to learn) or else it defies some eternal law about agency, mercy, justice or so on.

But, if helping in this tiny insignificant thing helps you come that much closer to understanding God’s love—the most important truth—then how is it not worth it?

God is your best friend. He wants to hear you talk to him, even if he decides to answer you no. He wants to listen and wants you to know He loves you. (And my post is not even touching the incredible real power of faith, which is a whole different factor in key-finding).

I get this is hard when you know people who’ve been through the trenches. It leaves you wondering? Why my keys and not my family? Why the small things and not the big? But that’s where trust comes in. Once you know God loves you, however that happens, you start to move on to trusting him back. Trust that love. He will carry you through. He has promised that all your losses will be made up, and I believe that with my whole being.

And one last story:

I actually had the opposite problem.

I got really mad at God on my mission. It was hard. Really hard. But I never blamed God because 1) I knew it was my choice to be there and 2) I knew I was growing from it. The bigger things were harder, but somehow easier for me to wrap my mind around.

So, what made me so mad? I lost my mini-hymnbook half-way through. Frankly, weak person that I am, I’m still sometimes bitter about it. He answered yes to my small prayers (memory sticks, free food, my baby blanket) and to my big ones (rain in California and many others).

But I had, still sometimes have, a hard time accepting why an omniscient God wouldn’t just give me back something that meant a lot to me, especially when it was so small an insignificant, when I begged him for it. I knew/know without a single doubt that he has the power. Like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, I wanted to shout, “would it spoil some vast eternal plan?” (Which of course invites the quote from an old conference talk: Yes, Tevye, it might). But it was/is very hard for me to see.

But I KNOW God loves me. So, I get mad and apologize and repent a lot over stupid things like this, but I also find out how loved and strong I am.

We don’t know God’s plan. We have no idea what crazy awesome works he’s doing in the world. (Maybe the poems tucked in my hymnbook will inspire some future lyrical genius, who knows?) And we have no idea what crazy awesome works he’s doing in US, which is just as important. (Losing the little burgundy book has definitely led me into many needed heart to heats with Him.)

He loves you. If you aren’t sure, try a “stupid” small prayer yourself. Say it in faith. Even if you don’t get what you want, He’ll answer.