Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

Did you know. . .

A woman walked to her car and noticed a smudge on her driveway that resembled the face of Jesus. She dug up the concrete and sold the slab on eBay for $1,800.

A ten-year-old toasted a grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly bore the image of the Virgin Mary. It sold on eBay for $28,000.

A man was fixing his breakfast one morning and claims that Jesus' face appeared in his pancake. The pancake had reached bids as high as $14,999 when it was pulled by eBay, claiming that the seller had violated posting rules.

There is a website called Yo-God.com that sells God detectors, devices advertised to "give God a way to send a simple, unambiguous message of His presence." According to the website, there are over 4,500 of these devices out in the world.

What a misled group! Spending their life savings searching for answers from God when all they really need to do is open their Bibles and open their hearts. Now, I will be the first to admit that God's voice is not always easy to hear or understand. Take, for example, when He called me to leave my teaching career and start writing. At first, I didn't hear. Then, once I heard, I didn't understand. Finally, after the twentieth thump on my head, the message was clear.

The problem with most people is that they want answers from God but they want them in their time, and they want those answers to be what they want to hear. God doesn't work that way, but He does work. Whatever the question, God will answer in His way and in His time. And the great thing is that He will keep speaking until we get it. If it takes twenty times, He'll be faithful. He won't give up on us just because we don't hear or understand. He'll keep on until we have no doubt about His answer. He did for Gideon.

When the angel first appeared to Gideon and told him that he was the one who would save his people, Gideon was more than a little skeptical. He asked for a sign and then another one and then another one. When God was done with Gideon, Gideon had no doubt about what God had said. The God who spoke to Gideon is the same God who speaks today. He doesn't need a detector, a concrete slab, a cheese sandwich, or a pancake to make His presence known. He only needs a listening ear and an open heart. He'll take care of the rest.