How to receive a miracle

With eyes closed, I stood near the back of the Sonrise Chapel with my arms raised as we sang majestic words of worship. In my imagination, I saw great glorious drops of honey gold dropping all around me. Ten minutes later, I opened my eyes and craned my neck to see what the prophetic artists were painting. Stunned, I watched Anita Young painting exactly what I had seen in my mind. “It’s a miracle,” I thought!

Too rarely, do we hear the words—“It’s a miracle!” But when we do, our emotions awaken to honey-like warmth spreading through our bodies, soothing our minds, quieting our hearts. And then we dance! We hoot! We celebrate! In this moment our world takes on the golden glow of a safe haven. Hope flourishes!

Do you yearn for that honey-coated miracle? Right now! Today! Yesterday would have been better. But today will do!

Skeptical? My favorite thing to do with a word like miracle is to discover the root meaning. Like a gift-wrapped package, I want to tear it open and look inside. Via Old French from the Latin miracle means “Object of Wonder.”

We have all beheld a miracle then. You don’t go see an “Object of Wonder!” It is not to be ogled at, but to catch your breath and behold.

You may have watched your son, the rookie, catch the fly ball at the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded to save the game. You whisper–It’s a miracle! It is indeed an “Object of Wonder”to behold–and you never tire of watching the replays.

Oh, but that’s how it is with miracles. “Objects of Wonder” do not quietly appear in musty museums on oak lined avenues for free Thursdays. Nope—they break into our world when all hope seems lost. With no land in sight, they are the small craft appearing from nowhere that fishes you from shark-infested waters. Gulp! Miracles just have the uncanny requirement of inducing someone to paddle past blood suckers to behold their beauty.

Sometimes “Objects of Wonder” appear as the person who leads us through these troubled waters. In an interview for his new movie, The Conspirator,” Robert Redford speaks to Parade Magazine about leadership during tumultuous times. He said, “You have to have courage beyond reason. You might even have to be slightly foolhardy.” I would add that miracles appear when you are courageously foolhardy in a way that wrestles all pride from your ego! You emerge almost as an observer—a reluctant hero faithful in the face of chaos, ambiguity, and fear!

Still interested in that formula? It is excessively simple, but the path is so hidden beneath the brambles of our natural style of believing that it will take some digging.

Radical Trust + Humble Awe = The Miracle

Pause and reflect. Feel the tension. See the anomaly.

You do not command this formula. You make place for it by sweeping up and discarding the dust of toxic thoughts, memories, and emotions of past disappointments. You quiet your mind. Catch a new vision of what might be. Then you feverishly charge ever so daintily into the lap of your safe guardian, Possibility. You let go of fear; you are overtaken by love. Love compels! You dare not resist! You nestle!

If you are reading this post between April 5 and May 4, you are in the Jewish month of Nissan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, known as the time of “the beginning of miracles.” This is the month to dip your oar confidently in the water of possibility!

So write out the formula. Post it on your mirror or above your desk. Mull! Meditate! Contemplate. Paint a mind picture. Get serious. Get giddy! Leave the shore of security.

Consider your situation.

How will you know radical trust has arrived?

Who appears when humble awe awakens?

Want to do life from the Flourishing Place? Meditate on this equation. It will not fail you! I’ll be eager to learn what you discover. Post it here.