How to Be a Miracle

July 2012 – So I’ve got a riddle: When does six days of total chaos equal six days of total fun?

That’s easy! When you log those six days in a Palm Desert Marriott villa with your four grandkids—ages 1-3!

Here’s the typical morning run-down: Waffles (topped with lots of maple syrup) and bananas are followed by the shuttle bus ride to the Desert Springs Hotel to feed the ducks and scope out the flamingos (and to take a trip or two in the elevators).

Then it’s off to the pool. Sunscreen. CHECK. Pool toys. CHECK. Snacks. CHECK.

Then it’s back to the villa for some mac ‘n cheese (by popular demand), followed by nap time. Then it’s time for soap bubbles and squirt guns and water balloons. Then some more pool time. Dinner. Baths. Curious George video. Story time. And bedtime. (Note to file: all of the above is subject to any number of audibles called at the line of scrimmage!).

One night, before I crashed into bed, I found myself leaning over one of my grandkids as they were in a deep sleep (undoubtedly recharging for the next day’s line-up of activities!) and began to pray over him. I started to pray that his life would be free of challenges and disappointments and complications. But as I meandered down this prayer pathway of a trouble-free life, I had to pause and admit that my grandfatherly petition was not tethered to real life.

The fact is that my grandson will have challenges and disappointments and complications. So I had to shove my prayer into reverse and began to pray the words that author and pastor Phillip Brooks penned back in the mid 1800s:

Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God.

Good words, huh?

So I’ve got a question: When you think about those words through the lens of leadership, do you find yourself convicted? I do.

Too often I want a quick fix. Too often I want things to run smoothly. Too often I want my leadership world to be sans complication.

But I also find those words energizing. Empowering. Inviting. Because in my heart of hearts, I long to be a leader who brings supernatural strength to the unpredictable twists and turns of leadership. I want to be a leader who matches the task at hand with power from above. I want to be a leader who is a walking billboard to a miracle-performing God.

I believe that is the spirit and message behind the Apostle Paul’s doxology: Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!

Note the interplay, the connection. It is “His power that is at work within us“. In short, we are the delivery system for God’s power.

Perhaps you and I share a common pursuit. At the end of the day, I want the commentary on my life and leadership to be less and less about my resume and more and more about His power. That’s because God finds great delight in doing extraordinary things through everyday people.

It all comes down to this: have I postured my life is such a way that God’s power can be displayed through my life?

It’s an important question. Because He is seeking someone to be His next miracle.

Will it be you?

Lord, we pray to be stronger people. We pray for power equal to our tasks. We pray for lives that are miracles.