There was a hurricane. It came ashore as a category 5 storm and flooded a huge swath of coastal Louisiana. A black woman in her mid-60s climbed awkwardly out of the window of her house to get onto the roof as the waters rose and took over her kitchen and living room. By the time she’d escaped to the shingles the waters on the ground beneath her were over six feet high, and rising. Her name was Dorthy Mae and her knees weren’t the best and as she stood on the roof they were on fire with pain from her recent acrobatics. She was a godly woman, a faithful one. She wore big hats every Sunday and would not permit her grand-babies to take the Lord’s name in vain. Not in her house anyway.
That house was currently underwater.
So, Dorthy did what she always did. She prayed. There, on the roof, beneath the pouring rain and wind above the rising waters, she lifted her eyes and hands to heaven and emptied her heart to God.
“Lord,” she prayed. “I’ve served you all my life, and I don’t mind going to meet you but I sure ain’t want to go by drowning. Save me God."
About fifteen minutes later, a man on a hastily made raft floated by. “Get on!” he shouted. “I’ll save you!”
“No thank you!” Dorthy shouted in return. “I’m waiting on God.”
About fifteen minutes after that, a bass boat with outboard motor came down the street. The man driving it was wearing one of those baseball caps with a drape that hangs down over the neck to keep you from getting sunburned. “Get on!” he shouted. “I’ll save you!”
“No thank you!” Dorthy shouted in return. “I’m waiting on God.”
By this time, the waters were lapping up over the edges of the roof but Dorthy was not afraid. She was a godly woman. A woman who waited on God.
About fifteen minutes later, a rescue squad in a helicopter saw her from above with their spotlight. “Hold on!” Came the shout over the megaphone. “We’re lowering a gurney!”
“No thank you!” Dorthy waved them off with fervent faith. “I am waiting on God!”
The helicopter stayed longer than it should have. The winds were getting bad and the flying was no good but the pilots really wanted to help Dorthy. In the end though, she could not be persuaded. They flew away.
The waters rose. Dorthy prayed. They rose more and Dorthy drowned with her hands clasped in prayer, waiting for her savior.
When she arrived at the gates of Heaven she was irate. Drowning had been every bit as unpleasant as she’d feared. St. Peter was standing before the pearly gates, checking names. When it was her turn, she marched right up to Cephas with all the righteous rage of someone given poor customer service at a Holiday Inn.
“Now what gives!?” She demanded. “I prayed to God with all my heart and he didn’t hear me! What was that about!?”
“My dear woman,” Peter responded, his face glowing with the light of his halo. “What more did you want? He sent a raft, and a boat, and a helicopter!”
Afterwards Dorthy Mae felt a little embarrassed. But in the end it worked out. The buffet inside the gates was better than anything she’d ever had at the casino in Biloxi.
God like Water
I think people want God to act in a more complex way than He prefers to. If he acts in any way that can be explained prosaically then, for many, it doesn’t count. “Oh that wasn’t God. That was a guy with a raft.” “Don’t thank God! Thank your doctor!” “God didn’t help you when you were down, that charity did!”
But this attitude is backwards. Like the water he created, I believe God acts through the path of least resistance. He always fulfills his promises to you, but he prefers to do so in the most natural way possible. You’re in a tight spot and need money? Maybe God reaches out to help you through a friend’s generosity. You’re in danger and need saving? Maybe God acts by sending a rescue helicopter. You’re sick and in need of healing? Perhaps God is acting on your behalf through the hands of a doctor.
People don’t like that. They want God to act in special, otherwise unexplainable ways to answer their prayers. That way, they reason, they’ll know it was really him. If it can be explained in any other way, then it might not be God, and so how can they know if God really answered their prayers?
To be sure, God can act in very spectacular ways. But I think in most cases he usually only does so if that’s the only path left available. Water can burst through an obstacle, sure. But, if there’s an easier more natural and less destructive way around, it will take it. For example, Christ must be praised. He will be, no matter what. God prefers that happen naturally, through the path of least resistance by willing people using their voices. But, if they won’t, then the rocks themselves will cry out. But only then, see? Only IF the natural way of less resistance is blocked for some reason.
Look at your body. You are (most of you, thank God), whole. All your trillions of cells are working in harmony to keep you alive, breathing, metabolizing, speaking, walking around. Is this not a miracle? Are you doing all of that yourself? And yet it has been achieved through the most prosaic of means. Your life has probably been fairly normal. As Carl Jung said, modern man does not see God because he does not look low enough. God is all-powerful, he can do anything. But he is also humble, he acts in the smallest of ways to not overwhelm his creation which is so delicate in comparison to himself. Christ is the eternal Tao and as Lao Tzu said:
"The great Tao flows everywhere to the left and to the right. It loves and nourishes all things but does not lord it over them, and when merits are accomplished it lays no claim.”
This was so lovely to read. Thank you.
No, most of us are NOT still whole. A large percentage of the population has chosen to be poisoned by DNA shifting Clot Shots. Pray for them, they have chosen to separate themselves from the creation they were made as.