Miracles

Best guideline to use is personal experiences or family stories. I always use the line blank shared the following story. Story at least to me could be true but reality used to illustrate a point.

Years ago I was walking with my Episcopalian neighbor. As we were talking, she shared what they had discussed at church. The topic was the “miracle” of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
But what was interesting in what she shared is that the “miracle” was not that Jesus had turned scant rations into many, but that the people Jesus was teaching that day had ultimately decided to share the loaves and fish they had brought with them (but not initially turned over) once the scant rations started being distributed. The “miracle” was more people deciding to share, not that Jesus had miraculously created more loaves and fishes.
Has anyone else heard this interpretation?

Or now that virtually everyone is carrying a camera with them 24/7, why are there no photos of UFOs? There were a lot of poor resolution, grainy photos in the 50’s through the 70’s of UFOs, but today, not so much.

“there is not an event that is not going to be recorded.”

Rather a lot still is not recorded. A day may be coming when everything, everywhere is recorded.

“Could Christ’s miracles have withstood this modern scrutiny?”

Of course; but much of what make a thing miraculous isn’t the visible part. The visible parts may seem rather mundane at times.

“What would video of Jesus walking on water have looked like?”

Pretty much like an Avengers movie or a David Copperfield stunt.

Let’s look at one or two of mine. The traffic camera shows me heading south on Kam highway in the lane nearest the median. It sees me change lanes. A moment later an automobile at a high rate of speed is heading north in the southbound lanes and you might think, “Wow, that driver was lucky to change lanes just then!” What the camera did not catch, and cannot catch, was the voice in my mind saying, “Change lanes now.”

To me it is a miracle, to you it is a thing that happens hundreds, maybe thousands of times a day that people escape death. I think that “miracle” is a lot more common than some imagine.

Bishop Bill observes “Micheal 2, you don’t go South on Kam Highway, you go Ewa or Dimondhead! ”

Or mauka (toward the mountain) or makai (toward the sea) depending on where exactly one is which in my case was makai of the Aloha Stadium. Gosh its been a long time since I went down that memory lane. That I called the police to report the incident will have been a public record but why I was alive to make that call is known with certainty only to me. That is why many miracles can be known, for sure, only to the experiencer of them. For everyone else its just another story.

Where is this Great God of Comfort and Help?

I’m sure that (like everyone who has ever lived) I look back on the passage of time and wonder “how did it all pass so quickly”. At the same time I ask this fairly common “human” question, I also have to add a somewhat uncommon (perhaps even unique) query – which is “how in the world have I devoted almost half of my life to the loving, raising, nurturing….and the 24/7 management of a severely autistic child?”

I’m sure it may come as no surprise when I tell you that this is not the first time I’ve asked this question. In fact, there have been times when I have practically shouted it at the heavens; and to any God or God’s who may be inclined to listen. “What could the possible purpose be (from a loving God) to force a precious soul into a lifetime of captivity; dwelling in a broken body – with a broken mind?” And then, to “gift that child to parents in way that will slowly, inexorably grind their health, well-being and God given energy into the ground; as the demands of caring for this loved child never, ever end”.

Being the offspring of 5 generations of faithful LDS heritage, I was raised on a steady diet of stories, teachings and I suppose doctrine of how our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles; who has a keen interest in every aspect of our lives – all throughout our lives. At this point, it is important to underscore that I thoroughly internalized all of this, throughout my young life, during my missionary service for the church and in the early years of my marriage and family life.

Today, as I search my heart, my soul, my mind and my memories, I have to admit that I can no longer believe in a being who regularly bestows miracles on his offspring here on this planet. Nor, does everything that happens in our lives have purpose or reason for occurring. Yes its’ true, sometimes “shit just happens”. (Or, if you’re put off by the harsh reality of that statement, we can certainly say “life just happens”.)

I readily acknowledge the steady stream of testimonies, Facebook posts, faithful blogs and stories from people who express gratitude for the miracle of a beautiful morning, of finding lost car keys, an extra five dollar bill in an old pair of jeans and/or the road being cleared for a person to make their way to work on time on a busy morning. Generally, many of these minor miracles seem to fall under the description of “tender mercies”; as described by those who experience them.

Please don’t think I’m making light of these daily positive events which happen to everyone from time to time. Rather, I’m simply asking if all of these little, daily uplifting occurrences are gifts from a loving God, then where does this same loving, omniscient Being disappear too when the “big stuff” comes into a person’s life!

As I reflect on the life changing “hurricane” of having a severely autistic child (at a relatively young age) I feel compelled to mention that (on the opposite end of the life spectrum) my much loved Dad is now suffering through the cruel, debilitating, soul stealing condition of Alzheimer’s disease. So, for almost thirty years I’ve watched and cared for my beautiful little girl in a broken body with a broken mind and now I’m watching and help care for my wonderful Dad whose body and mind have become broken as well. And honestly – I just don’t know what to make of it all; particularly within the context of what I’ve been taught throughout all of my history with Mormonism and Christianity.

Over the course of decades, many Priesthood blessings have been given; by higher and higher authorities. My wife and I have fasted and prayed until “we’re blue in the face”. We’ve put names on the prayer rolls at the Temple and we’ve watched and waited….and waited…and waited…and waited for the hoped for divine intervention. Sadly, it hasn’t come – at least in any kind of way that I can recognize.

However, here is the reality of WHAT HAS occurred. My wife and I have worked our asses off (for years) to hold everything together; our family, our marriage relationship, our home, the well-being of our other children – let alone our own emotional, mental and physical health. We’ve been deeply bruised, scarred and very-nearly broken. We’ve given up on, or indefinitely postponed our own dreams and personal aspirations and have stoically forced ourselves to survive. But, here we stand!

To simply say that I’m intensely proud of both my wife and I really doesn’t do justice to the depth of my feelings; which I really haven’t shared much publicly.– until now. Rather than finding divine intervention from without, I’ve discovered and found life in the strength, kindness, laughter and friendship of other human beings. Additionally, I’ve mined strength from within myself that I had not known existed. This comes, I suppose, when one must choose between giving up or simply continuing to put one foot in front of another – as long and as steadily as possible.

There is a small place, deep in my heart, where I wish I could still believe in a God who cares and is willing to help us in time of need. At rare times, I think I can perceive some order in the universe and perhaps intelligence behind it. But, more often than not, the harsh realities of life teach me something else entirely. That is:

• We (human beings) are most likely all that we have – and that we must rely on each other.
• Love for each other, support for each other and acceptance for each other is of paramount importance; particularly if we want to make it through this life with any
semblance of sanity.
• No one is going to swoop in and save us from ourselves and “make sense of it all”.
• This world is all that we have. We’d better become much more diligent stewards of it.
• Our time is precious – and limited. We ought to cherish each and every moment we have with those we love.
And…

• While Mormonism (and other religions as well) all make promises of comfort, assistance and relief, the only true comfort from these organizations are the result of
ignorance; willful or otherwise. Once anyone sees or experiences what is real – an understanding sets in that most of what they teach is nonsense.

To all of you here on this blog….Thank “God” for you!

I greatly appreciate this article and comments. For me, I think the LDS Church has (very much) overused the term & over promised on the subject of Miracles. It’s pretty much become a meaningless word; in a world filled with constant hyperbole. Within Mormonism these days….everything is a Miracle! Take a look at the latest Church News from last weekend. President Nelson is performing miracles all over the world!

For Lefthandloafer — I sympathize with your experience. I prayed every day for more than 20 years to find my spouse. Little things, little miracles nearly a dime a dozen but the Big Thing, no help and just silence.

For what its worth, in the biography of Spencer W. Kimball, he had been called to be an apostle and still had not had an actual witness, a manifestation of God. How is that even possible? Well, he decided that he was not going to be an apostle, a witness of Jesus Christ, without a witness. So he went on a mountain somewhere above Salt Lake City and called out to God saying he would jump off a cliff if it were not made known to him right then and there that God existed. He describes obtaining that witness right then and there, and his description brought tears to my eyes and I could not read further in the book and never did finish reading the book. I admire his candor and his life experiences and I probably got more out of reading of Spencer W Kimball than any other prophet.

One of the gifts of God is to know he exists; but another gift of God is to believe on the words of a believer. It isn’t necessary or even intended that everyone would know God by personal contact, in part perhaps because there’s a weakness — how does one know that you have just met “God”?

For all you know you sat next to God at McDonald’s. As to spirits, they exist in large number and are pretty much everywhere; some good, some bad. Many bad actually (the 1/3 that defied God).

One of the most important fossil discoveries in the 2oth century is the Taung child. The preservation of this fossil is a miracle or at least very very unusual. This early human ancestor lived over 2 million years ago and was found in 1924 in South Africa. It is most of the skull and part of the brain of a small child. It showed that brain evolution was not the primary or initial event that separated human ancestors from other apes. This fossil alone blows orthodox interpretations of the biblical account of the creation out of the water.

The most horrible and fascinating aspect of this fossil is that we can tell how it died. It has characteristic talon marks in the eye sockets having been killed and eaten by an eagle or other large bird of prey. Can you even imagine the horror of the mother watching an eagle carry her small child away? Or the horror of the last hideous few seconds of that child’s life as the eagle picked its eyes out to get at its nutritious brain? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taung_Child

This is how God works. If the Taung child was human and we believe in a universal resurrection then that is its ultimate fate. And if not then we believe it faces the same ultimate fate as the faithful family dog. The resurrection of the Taung child will be greater than any possible suffering it experienced in this life.

Life is so hard. God is Greater.

DoubtingTom writes “If we define a miracle as an event for which there is no plausible naturalistic explanation”

That’s a pretty good definition. I haven’t defined it so I think I’ll use yours.

When that voice told me “change lanes now”, and I did, and by so doing avoided a head-on collision from a car traveling in the opposite direction but in the lane I had just vacated, there is no naturalistic explanation. Perhaps I just imagined it at that exact moment. it’s possible I’ll grant. But unlikely. Less likely as compared to that something put that thought in my mind to “change lanes now”.

But was it GOD? Probably not. Nevertheless he’s king of the invisible world so “God” gets credit even though it could also be Hans born in Norway 200 years ago keeping an eye on his descendants. Hans probably watches over many, but not many are listening, and there’s one of him and many descendants so it was as much luck as anything else that someone or something was looking ahead and saw that vehicle coming where I could not see it.

The movie “Next” with Liam Neeson is one of my favorites. He can see 7 minutes into the future. It is amazing what you can do with even a limited view of the future, or over the horizon in my own case. I do not claim that the one-true-God personally has ever intervened in my life. Visits from that God are extremely rare, perhaps two sightings in 2000 years (Saul of Tarsus and Joseph Smith). It is the power of God, or the “Light of Christ”, that is everywhere like a magnetic field and its disturbances can be felt and sometimes interpreted as to significance. Then of course you have a very large number of spirits good and bad; more bad than good in my opinion here on Earth. Bad spirits are confined here, good spirits can go to Heaven but I think some stay here to serve mortals (or try to).

Encountering the bad ones can be a wakeup call. Women tend to be more sensitive to spirits both good and bad.

“What I can’t fathom is a God who would intervene in one person’s life to prevent a car accident but not the young girl pleading with her God to save her from being raped”

I also do not “fathom” it. However, the evidence suggests that the orthodox Christian view of God may be incorrect or exaggerated. An omnipotent benevolent God would seem to not allow non-benevolence anywhere, at any time, using your or my definition of benevolent of course. He cannot be permitted to use his own definition of benevolent.

“I am more comforted by the idea of beautiful coincidences than a capricious God who randomly chooses to intervene in people’s lives, sometimes in quite mundane ways.”

The events of my life can be listed in order of specificity or objectivity all the way down to “probably a coincidence but there’s no harm in giving credit to God even if he hand nothing to do with it” At the other end of maximum specificity are several miracles each of which told me to do something, in words, whose utility was immediate. Back east it was to go render assistance to my bishop whose daughter had just been in an automobile accident. This is all pre-cellphone days; now it is easy for someone to just call or text and get assistance. In Concord, California; at the end of a Thanksgiving weekend, I was trying to take a shortcut back to Moffett Field Naval Air Station and got lost in the hinterland west of Concord. I started following my spiritual compass, which way *felt* right (or left) and at one point this same voice (mine, actually, but stimulated somehow) “Turn around, you are going the wrong way” and so I did and soon enough I was back on the freeway.

When Google Earth came into existence I looked for these locations, and could not find it, but Google has “historical imagery” and scrolling back the time slider suddenly there it was, the roads I traveled and the place where I heard “turn around, you are going the wrong way.”

Is that mundane? Sure. No doubt about it. World peace cannot be found, but directions to the nearest freeway onramp easily obtained!

“No thanks. I can’t worship such a being.”

Hooray for free agency! I worship God but won’t be a bit surprised that these notifications came from my ancestor, Hans.

Susan Brown writes “Low and behold, the wind blew away part of the snow and they were able to find the hot wheels car.”

That kind of mundane miracle has been fairly common with me. Sometimes it is just mind illuminating, any kind of mental discipline mantra would work just as well in such cases, but in other cases I’m convinced there’s external knowledge added to the mix. Something you don’t know, not even subconsciously.

What is mundane to you or me can be of paramount importance to a child. But as I mention above, it might not be God Almighty that personally answers the telephone but he operates this big call center and it is under his auspices and by the power of God, but the actual spirit that knows where is that lost Hot Wheels car is probably not God himself.

“3. A man who forgot to get gas on Saturday and drove all over the State of Utah with the gas needle on “empty” but the Lord provided a miracle and he did not run out of gas.”

This can turn out to be mundane, like a malfunctioning gas gauge, but there’s no harm in giving glory to God over everything good! That is the lesson we learn of Job and of King Solomon. It can also be as miraculous and magical as it seems; difficult to know if you weren’t there. In my case I document every filling of gasoline so if I were to suddenly get 60 mpg it would show up for sure. But since miracles are not usually intended for public persuasion, the fact that I document with such detail suggests that I will never encounter that particular miracle.

“what am I missing?”

Attribution. On the occasion that I give thanks to God, the list is rather long. I need only consider my ancestors barely living in Norway; cold and hungry and thus worth the huge risk to come to Canada and then America. Here I sit at a computer in a warm room, but not too hot, just right! Hot and cold running water pure enough to drink right out of the tap. Flush toilets OMG.

“they attribute all of this to God? Doesn’t God have better things to do?”

Yes, he doesn’t. I don’t have better things to do that help my own children with things that are to them important and in so doing recapture some of the joy of my youth. Helping my 8 year old build a 3-dimensional riparian “biome” became a family affair.

But attributing to God is the defined behavior; even when it isn’t actually God that provided the hint or intervention.

“Why does this sound so bitter?”

Because (IMO) you judge yourself inadequate by the claims of other people. Your path is yours. When I interview Boy Scouts, they take an oath to “do my best” — not your best or anyone else’s best; each his own best. How can that best be discovered? By trying and failing! If your destiny is of greatness

“Is it ever just “your time” or “your luck” or you were “in the right place (or wrong) at the right (or wrong) time? Where does coincidence fit into this picture?””

God said, “Let the Earth bring forth life” and the Earth brought forth life and God saw that it was good. Not all good, but good enough to plant intelligence and souls.