Not long ago someone mentioned Ben, a mutual friend, in conversation.
In that moment, his face suddenly snapped into focus in my mind.
Ben! How long had it been since I’d heard from him? Years before, we’d been friends in ministry. He’d spoken often at our church. But somehow, I’d lost all contact with him and now had no idea how to find him. Why was his name and face coming so clearly into my mind again? Was he experiencing some kind of difficulty? Did he need prayer?
What was so surprising to me in the coming days was that no one in my network—a long list of ministers and businessmen—knew anything about his whereabouts. I called people within his friendship circle, but no one seemed to have any current contact information. I felt uneasy. How could someone like Ben, a man with years in the ministry , just fall off the end of the world?
After several futile efforts I spoke to the Lord about it—and found myself talking to Him about His omniscience. God knew where Ben was that very moment. This is a God who knows everything. A passage from Psalm 139 in the Living Bible came to mind:
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit or stand. When far away you know my every thought. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say before I even say it. (Psalm 139:1-5, tlb)
“Lord,” I prayed, “You know when we stand up or sit down and every move we make. You know I’m looking for Ben, but in a population base of 13 million people divided into well over 150 municipalities—and hardly any of them with listed phone numbers—I simply don’t know where to start. If you have brought Ben to my mind for some reason or if he’s in any kind of need, I’m ready to help however I can. But I will need your help to find him.”
What did I imagine would come from that prayer? I’ve always been an ardent believer in miracles—but at that moment finding Ben in Southern California (if he was even still living here) seemed beyond miraculous to me. I took solace however, in the fact that I had volunteered to help Ben if he could be found. But honestly, I didn’t really expect it to happen.
At the same time this was going on, I also found myself dealing with some out-patient surgery, regarding a tiny, inconsequential growth that needed to be removed. I was somewhat irritated at my wife because she had told our boys about it, and they showed up at the hospital with their families. I couldn’t believe the crowd of people in the pre-op room. You’d have thought I was undergoing a brain transplant instead of minor surgery.
The troops were all there, we prayed together, and—on reflection—a pretty nice development, after all.
As they left, the pre-op nurse said, “You’re Christians, aren’t you?”
“And you are a Christian, too,” I said with pleasantly, “or you wouldn’t have noticed.”
Her face lit up with a big smile. I asked her where she went to church, and she mentioned a mentioned one in Downey, in Orange County. When I asked her who her pastor was, she said it was Ben, the very man I’d been looking for!
Finally finding my voice again, I asked her if she would pass along a note to her pastor. After she found me a note pad and a pen, I quickly scribbled, “Ben, I’ve been looking for you and today, miraculously, I met this angel from your church. Please call me.” And I left my phone number. We were in touch within four days. Not long after that, we were sitting together in a restaurant, where I was privileged to walk him through some trying times he’d been experiencing.
Well, someone might say, it was a coincidence.
Yes, it might have been. But I can’t help noticing the fact that the more I pray specific, believing prayers and commit even the smallest details of my life to the Lord, the more those “coincidences” seem to keep happening.
The fact is, when we come to the end of our own resources—whatever our situation might be—and find ourselves on the threshold of despondency, those are the very times when God stands ready to show us His attributes and character qualities, if we’re willing to trust Him.
In the backwash of our disappointment, at those inevitable times in our lives when our problems multiply and our frustrations mount, we ought to think twice before we speak disparagingly about God. You know the kind of comments I’m talking about. We’ve all said things like these: “What’s the use in praying. I don’t think God knows who I am or that I even exist!”
It isn’t true of course. And deep down we know better.
That’s not the kind of self-talk that will help us in moments of personal setbacks and perplexities. What we need is a strong dose of Psalm 139. What we need is to declare back to God Who He is and what He means to us. Like David, we need to say, “This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! I can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from God!” (vv. 6-7, tlb).
He holds every aspect of our lives in His hands.
And not one tiny detail escapes His notice.