If you were waiting for a sign…

I was sorting papers today, throwing away things I’d kept for some reason. I’ve kept a lot of written prayer requests from a group I was once part of. I have cards asking for prayers for relatives and friends. One asking for good weather. (“Don’t snow! Don’t rain! Plz.”) Prayers for peace of mind. Prayers for all sorts of things.

One person, at some point, wrote the following:

“Pray for guidance for me, for the direction of my life; and for all the other directionless people suffering from prolonged adolescence in today’s culture?”

I think the question mark at the end is especially poignant. The perfect flourish on a request for direction from someone who is having trouble committing. But the request is really intriguing. For my part, I have spent a lot of time praying for guidance for this person. I was praying long before I got this request, and I kept praying long after. The thing is, I have been constantly amazed at how fully those prayers for guidance have been answered. And equally confounded by how incredibly recalcitrant this directionless person has been in the face of what looks like more guidance than I’ve ever seen anyone get about anything (including my parents who followed a call to become missionaries).

In my more exasperated moments, I’d pray, “God, Whatever you want my friend to hear, please just tell my friend in plain English what to do, as straightforwardly as possible!” And later that week, we’d be walking down the street and some stranger would stop us and tell my friend what to do. Really. Like, “Evening. You should ____.” I mean, that’s only happened a few times. I mention it just for fun. Did you ever see Joan of Arcadia? God would appear as strangers and just start talking to the protagonist about her life. Most guidance isn’t like that, though!

At some point, after years of praying for guidance for this person (and seeing God offer a lot of guidance), it occurred to me that there wasn’t much more anyone could do. Even this person’s friends started seeming tired and saying, “well, I’ve said my piece.” If you aren’t going to take the answer to your prayers when you get it, well, continuing to pray isn’t going to help much. At some point, it is up to us to accept what God has given us.

Someone observed once that the miracles in the Bible don’t convince people. They are miracles for those who already have faith! People who see them who don’t have faith just try to explain them away. They reject the miracle, or ignore it.

I think sometimes we assume that if we insist we believe in God and love God, we can just be limp, wet noodles and assume God will do all the work of making us understand what we are supposed to do. Like God is in the business of just planting opinions in our heads.

But faith is actually trust. Not an assertion of belief, but a relationship with God expressed through action. Think of a trust fall: the recalcitrant seekers of direction will never take the plunge because they are waiting to be pushed. But that isn’t trust, is it? The trusting person folds his arms across his chest and tips back! And if we don’t trust God and trust the path he creates for us, then no guidance will satisfy us. We need to take steps in trust. (I don’t mean moving to a new city just to see what happens. I mean looking at where God has put you and what God has given you and what God actually seems to be asking of you.)

But we can waste years praying for guidance and refusing it when it comes because we don’t want to be active participants in the relationship of trust. Or because we wanted a different sign. Or because we don’t like what we hear.

If you were waiting for a sign, you probably already got it.