Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Good Luck: I will pray for you!




The two phrases don't fit together: Good Luck and I will Pray for you! It is one or the other, but it can't be both.

To the Christian... who prays and seeks the direction of the Lord, there is no such thing as good luck. There are answered prayers, there is the hand of the Lord on them, but luck has nothing to do with good things happening to a person or a family.

Case in point: I saw it happen yesterday. Let me share Tracy's story. Tracy Waltz is our youth pastor's wife. 10 days ago, we had a wedding at the camp chapel, with the reception at the main lodge. Tracy and Joel were there helping and participating in the fun evening. On the drive to the camp, Tracy took off her wedding ring in order to put on some hand cream. As she left the car to walk into the lodge, she forgot that her ring was in her lap. It wasn't until later that she realized that she didn't make it home with her ring.

This was not just a off-the-shelf ring; the diamond was Joel's grandmother's set into a new ring. Not only was it valuable, there was alot of sentimental value to the diamond itself. Tracy was crushed; Joel was doubtful that it would ever be found.

Tracy returned to the camp yesterday with a metal detector. Since the wedding, we have received over 10 inches of snow, and plenty of ice. The circle drive in front of the main lodge had been walked over, driven over and the snow and ice pack was at least an inch thick; and their were fresh bobcat tracks where the maintenance man had just scraped off what snow and ice that he could. Tracy used the metal detector and heard a beep under the snow. Tracy tells her story, "I figured the camp picked up bottle caps and litter, so I was hopeful. I went into the lodge, got a bucket of hot water and began to pour it over the spot. Right before my eyes, a circle began to melt around my ring. I stood there and cried... knowing it was truly a miracle. My husband had wished me good luck before I left home, and I told him he should pray that I would find it. He did, I did, and so did others"




What a great reminder to me... expect God to intervene when we pray. We worry, we fret, we stew before we pray. Buried under the snow packed situations of our struggle on earth, He has already has the perfect answer ready for us when we pray.

Written by:
Earl Taylor, Director of Vision and Design
Hidden Acres Christian Center, Dayton, Iowa
earldtaylor@yahoo.com
... Hidden Acres is a youth camp and retreat center and is owned by the Evangelical Free Churches of Iowa, South Dakota, and Missouri.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I Love it!! Thanks Earl for your inspirational thoughts on this moment! I will forever smile whenever I think of this situation and my own pessimistic attitude, even when I was praying!! Lord forgive me! It certainly was a miracle. :) Joel