Archives for December 2012

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

The damage to our roof seemed minor when I compared one smashed corner and a mangled gutter and drainpipe to the holes many neighbors had suffered. The insurance adjustor settled the cost to repair our battered west end with $1200. I did notice, however, when the first roofer I called to give me an estimate said, “Lady (why do all repairmen call me ‘lady’? How do they know? Maybe I am; maybe I’m not), you got three roofing surfaces up there. I don’t know if we can really fix it up. Regulations don’t allow more than two.”

I can’t remember, but we might have been the ones responsible—in fact, I’m sure we were. We’ve lived in this house for the last 35 years, buying the property when it was three years old. I can recall one roof surface overlaying the original, but I don’t have any memory of the second surface being pounded one upon another upon another.

We were almost ready to sign the contract for the $1200 roof repair, when one of those “storm-chasers” appeared at our door and wondered what kind of damage had been done above our heads. “Not much,” I replied, and pulled out the adjustor’s figures for some $7000 of various repairs, the corner of the bashed roof and the damaged drains being part of that total.

“Why don’t you let me get my guys up there and let’s see if any of the roof structure has been damaged?”

I was ready to move ahead with the first roofer, but David, being a little more forth-seeing, insisted we proceed with the stranger who appeared without warning at our front door. The storm hit us on the final days of June 2012; it is now the middle of December. Last week, after long negotiations to which the Mains had no part, the roofing company announced that our claim for a whole new roof (well, almost a whole new roof) had been approved. Two days ago the check came in the mail, as well as one of those detailed adjustor’s reports that read like Greek to the uninitiated construction-challenged homeowner. Today I drove 15 miles away to get the check endorsed by our primary mortgage-holder, then to the bank that holds our line of credit loan, then to deposit it in my own bank. Done!

Going past the house on my way to the office, I noticed that big piles of stacked roofing had been left in the driveway. The check should clear in three days, but work will begin today because we have two days of decent December weather forecasted—talk about cutting it thin.

“Well, that’s all done,” I said to my husband in relief. It seemed as though each endorsement required several phone calls for permission, record examinations, and each bank has its own particular set of rules that must be followed. “Karen,” he called. “Come into my office.”

It seems my visit to the bank that holds our mortgage had prompted a phone call from a mortgage officer. Due to the way our salary payments are structured and some other tangled legalities, we have not been able to refinance our home. At least four times, my husband has responded to the national campaigns that promise mortgage financing relief—all of them have said we can’t refinance. David explained this to the man on the other end of the line. “My goodness, none of that should be a problem. You have never missed a payment. I have your record in front of me. At 3% interest, you could save all kinds of money.” It appears that if we refinance for a 15-year mortgage at 3%, we will pay exactly what we are paying now, but save ourselves $112,000.

Not bad for a morning spent traveling from bank to bank in order to get the appropriate endorsement on the back of our insurance checks.

If this actually goes through—and I’ll let you know—we will have a new roof (that almost wasn’t) totally unexpected, as well as refinancing on our home mortgage—again, another huge gift, totally unexpected. I see God’s hand in the myriad little gifts of my days, but I am trying to open my mind and my heart to the possibility that my Heavenly Father may be wanting to delight us through bigger venues of his love, venues we can’t see, or even fathom with our limited imaginations, but real, nevertheless.

This certainly was an amazing morning. Merry Christmas!

I spy God!

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I suppose I do have too many dishes. Over the years, a few comments have not made me defensive, I suppose, as much as self-aware. One friend in a small group, for which I fixed an almost-monthly meal, said, “You really have a lot of company settings, don’t you.” Another friend in that group, herself a dish aficionado, defended my china largess by stating, “Oh, when you have company as much as Karen does, you can’t really ever have too many place settings.”

But this last weekend, a member of another small group—different small group—looked at my Christmas table, which generally gets set the first week of Advent and stays set ready for all who seem to land in our dining room. He asked this question: “Do you have a room for all your dishes?” It seemed as though he had another woman friend who had so many place settings that when her daughter got married and moved out of the house, she turned her room into a storage room.

I don’t think I have that many dishes.

We’re at that age, David and I, where all of our parents have died and we’ve inherited a lot of their things, most of purely sentimental value, not monetary. One set of hand-painted Bavarian china I passed along to a daughter-in-law. A couple of the other sets I am saving just in case a grandchild would like them for a wedding gift. In the meantime, I do put them out in the seasonal exchange—the setting prestidigitation that delights me, keeps David from spreading out on the dining room table, and hopefully, welcomes all who come into our home.

So when I saw this stack of Japanese bowls with the traditional swooping blue brush-lines and counted them up (twenty matching bowls, some with their stickers still on the bottom), I heard my friends’ questions in my mind—You really do have a lot of dishes, don’t you Karen? Do you have a room just to store your china?

Our cereal bowls have been a collection of unmatched leftovers. I’d been looking for a set of 8-12 bowls that were the same pattern, but when I couldn’t find anything, I settled for collecting an odd bowl here and an odd cereal bowl there.

But here, lo and behold, were 20 hardly used bowls, all matching, in my favorite colors and without a chip in any of the rims. The price in The Top Hat, the high-end resale shop in Geneva, was $20. I walked out without them mainly because I found a new humidifier in its original box with instructions and extra filters. But I also agree that I probably have too many dishes.

In the parking lot, a nudge—one of those inner nudges said to me, Now you march right back in there and buy those bowls. You don’t have cereal bowls. Where are you going to find 20 matching cereal bowls in the right colors, all practically new, without any chips, for only $20? I bought the bowls, realizing—as silly as it may sound to others—that this was one of God’s gifts to me. The Heavenly Father was delighting in giving me something I had been searching for and hadn’t been able to find.

How great is that? As a parent, I love to give my children gifts that I think they’ve wanted but not purchased because they were being careful about their money. God’s delight in giving good gifts is not any less than mine—probably more because He has taken pains to orchestrate what appears to be a serendipitous event knowing that I would be wandering into that high-end resale shop I hadn’t visited in almost a year.

I don’t always know what to do personally with a Scripture like this, seeing as I am flawed more than I like to admit, but this day, at this moment, in this Advent Season, I felt as though it applied, “Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.” A gift in the weeks leading up Christmas to remind me that God is good (all the time).

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I am so involved in ministry, sometimes I forget that at heart I am also an artist. This quality, I’m afraid, has taken a backseat to all the other ventures I have felt called to embark upon. I look forward to Heaven and hope God will appoint me a place at the feet of those artistic greats who did pursue the aesthetic calling in their souls. Me, I have to fit in artistry when I set a table or plant a garden or put together a retail-store ensemble that I wear to church or, on rare occasion, out to dinner.

But I received an e-mail recently from Dick Ryan, the head of the Inter Varsity Arts ministry. Could I possibly make a planning meeting for a gathering of arts students from all the disciplines scheduled at Wheaton College in January of 2013? He was going to try to contact a handful of various artists from the area who were professionals in their fields. The head of the Wheaton College Music Conservatory and Arts department would also be present, as he was co-sponsoring the Inter Varsity event.

Within three e-mail tries, we were all committed to a 1:30 afternoon meeting in the dean’s office at the Music Conservatory. And this happened within five days’ time—rather remarkable given everyone’s busy schedule.

In gatherings like this, I am reminded how much I miss being more a part of the arts community. I always feel like I’ve been speaking a second language, but when I’m with painters and print-makers and musicians and dancers who are passionate about their fields, I remember that now, now I am speaking my native tongue. This is such an amazing thing to me, to come home again, after traveling afar, to my country of origin, to the land of my aesthetic kin.

I’m not lonely for that country any more—though I used to be filled with intense nostalgia for my artistic kinfolk and did engage in some ridiculous efforts to hang onto the coattails of those who had a dedicated trajectory into theatre, film, creative studios, or to those who even taught in those fields.

I’m happy to do what I can for InterVarsity Arts—but mostly I count it a privilege to sit in the corners and listen to the struggles and discoveries and amazing journeys of those my artistic kinfolk whom I bless these days, even though it is from afar.

At least I am content with my artistry, such as it is—last week it was putting together the Advent Communion table, which shimmered with a wonderful deep-pink cloth and rich purple draping. The idea is that it will change and grow with each Advent week leading to Christmas. Next week, for Advent Two, we are adding a wine ruffle for the tablecloth to match the wine napkins that hold the bread, adding one deep-red pomegranate (a symbol of Christ) on each of the four Communion trays, and will start to wind the colors through the Advent wreath. For Week Three, we will add Communion pieces in all these colors—blue, purple, wine, pink and brown—to symbolize the patchwork quality, the uneven radiance of our lives together as the Body of Christ.

Perhaps 100 people will see this liturgical aesthetic expression of mine—maybe 20 will notice. But I am content, far away from my native country. A little artistry is enough for me these days. In my heart, it is a gift to my heavenly King—this round table—glowing softly under the gymnasium lights in the public grade school where we gather. It is for the Father Artist who sent his Creator Child in an enormous act of love with the plan for Him to lead us all back to the place where we really belong, that consummate Beautiful Land where we all long to be, where there is one common language, and we all will understand.

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Then there are the moments, sometimes whole days, when it seems as though nothing goes right. I should have told our pastor’s wife “No” when she announced that nine free tickets had been given to their family for the stage musical Sister Act and did we want to go?

I should have said, “No.” I’d just driven back from Midland, Michigan, arriving a whole hour ahead of my ETA and was at her house going over the last plans for the Neighborhood Christmas Boutique she was organizing for the weekend. I needed to go home, spend time with my husband, have a calm dinner, unpack, get myself ready for the rest of the week, and go to bed early.

But free tickets are free tickets. It is more than easy to spend upwards of $100 for one ticket, let alone $200 for two tickets, to a musical in downtown Chicago.

I suspected we had made the wrong choice when at about 10:30 p.m. we discovered that our Mazda Protégé, which had been parked in the Van Buren Street underground parking, would not start. I was certain of it when an hour later, three security guards confirmed that after about five tries with the manual battery recharger, and several tries with one of their own cars, they couldn’t get it to go. “Must be something else wrong,” was the summary of all our conclusions.

It was then we discovered the parking garage did not keep a list of tow-truck companies. We had no AAA service, my cell was out of juice, and David’s had plenty of battery life—except he had left it at home. By midnight, when our new friends’ shift ended, there would be no trains running to the western suburbs, and besides, what would we do with the disabled car sitting forlornly in the underground parking lot? It was then we also learned that most tow trucks couldn’t fit beneath the low ceiling—“They have to be under 6 foot 8 inches, can’t have a bed, and the boom has to be able to lower.” That, I suspected, eliminated a lot of towing candidates.

David and I gave up for the night, thanked our friends who had really attempted to help us, then walked three blocks up Michigan Avenue to the Hilton and made our best efforts at negotiating a reasonably priced hotel room. The best they could do (there was a medical conference and the hotel was full) was a room with double beds for $200 plus taxes. Obviously, we did not walk around cold, cold Chicago looking for a cheaper hotel.

This was a weird dilemma. Usually, I can come up with a solution for life’s problems. What I can’t solve, David can. In fact, I pride myself on being a good problem-solver. However, when lying awake and tossing didn’t help, I finally reminded myself that God has always walked with us even when it didn’t seem like the world was so willing to help us after all. I decided to thank Him for what He was going to do, even though I didn’t know what to do or what He was going to do.

David and I were both awake by 5 o’clock the next morning (that meant about four hours of sleep per bed partner). Nothing opened until 7:00—not the office in the underground parking garage, not the concierge desk, nor the Mazda dealership in Elgin. But we were dressed (not so hard, since we only had the clothes on our backs) and sitting on the bench beside the concierge counter. (Even the phone card machine was broken)

David had decided to call the Mazda dealer to see if they could send a tow truck since we would have to get our car to the repair shop there sooner or later. I decided I needed to know what time on the hour the Metro trains left Ogilvie Station on the western suburban line.

Graciously, the hotel concierge helped us as best she could with a minimum of our explanation. She looked up the train schedule: Metro trains departed at 8:40, 9:40, etc. Then she found the number of the Mazda dealership and made the phone call for us so David could ask his questions. It would take an hour and a half for them to send a tow truck, and the height of the truck was seven feet. No help there.

Soon we had made two walking trips back to the garage and one from the garage back to the hotel—to check out and to make one more phone call. We still had no scheme in place to get ourselves home or our car towed. The customer-service representative, Samantha (by now we were all on a first-name basis), suggested she call a roadside-assistance service the garage used frequently. “By all means,” we responded. It would take about 20 minutes for him to get into our neighborhood. David took orders for coffee and doughnuts and went upstairs to procure some from Dunkin’ Donuts. Samantha and I chatted. She wondered if she could charge my cell on her car charger. Lo and behold, it looked as though she might be able to. She left and took my cell with her.

David returned, my mobile was happily charging away, and the Chinese gentleman arrived in his battered service-van. We explained our problem (laments he has heard hundreds of times, I’m sure) and we met him by our disabled car. Again, the car didn’t start when he charged it. Coughing and hacking, he began rummaging in the engine. “Look,” he said, holding up a small part. “Bad fuse. I can fix. Will cost more money.”

“FIX IT!” David and I said in unison.

Forty-five minutes later, the motor was running. The man charged our battery again, just in case. The radio didn’t work and the key remote wouldn’t open the car, but the battery was humming. He charged David $140 for his work; my husband paid him $165.

Of course, we didn’t know what to do. Neither David nor I knew anything about 70-year-old Chinese men who have spent their lives bending over other people’s cars that have become stalled in inconvenient locations that other repair people can’t get to. “Too old for this,” he remarked to us. “Bending over. Bad back. Should retire.” (Actually, I was more concerned about his cough.) But God knew all about this bent gentleman’s 40 years of getting people out of spots they didn’t know what to do about.

Sometimes, the world seems not willing … to be our friend … to help us out. God knows about that too.

We were home by noon. Insurance covered our little escapade. The Mazda garage replaced the other blown fuses for a minimal cost. All we were out was $200-something for the hotel (and taxes), but then, that would have been about what we would have paid for theatre tickets—had we decided to attend without the temptation of a free evening.

Next time I don’t know what to do, I hope my memory reminds me that even when the world doesn’t seem willing, God always is. He has exactly the plan in mind that will help us out of the places no one else can reach.

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

While driving up to Midland, I noticed my gas tank was nearly 3/4 empty. I made a mental note to get out of the city traffic before rush hour and then to stop at Bridgeman, Michigan, for fuel. Bridgeman is exactly two hours away from our home in West Chicago. We always stop here at McDonald’s for coffee, to change drivers and for restroom pauses as we take our annual trek up through Detroit, across the U.S./Canada Bridge on our way to the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Bridgeman means we only have six more hours to go.

After grabbing a cup of coffee, I inquired about a gas station. “Under the highway, to the left,” replied the girl at the McDonald’s counter. “It’s a BP station.”

When I found the station and got out of the car, I discovered the weather had turned frigid—one of those sudden temperature drops. Hastily, I lifted the latch for the gas tank and unscrewed the cap. But I had left my glasses with the MapQuest directions on the passenger seat (along with the spilling contents of my opened purse and whatever what not’s were also inhabiting that space), so when I went to work the pump, I couldn’t read the instructions. “Card here.” “Press”—what? I tried to swipe that card three times and kept getting a message that my attempt was “illegitimate.” In addition, I was freezing, the wind was blowing up and it felt like there was rain in the evening air.

I would have driven away, but I wasn’t sure where the next gas station might be. Suddenly, the Indian gentleman who had been sitting inside the BP convenience store was at my elbow. “Let me help,” he said. He took my card, swiped it, and lo and behold, everything proceeded as normal.

“Thank you for coming out in the cold to help me,” I said. He nodded kindly, than hastened back inside into the warmth.

When I looked at the button he had pressed, I could now see that it read ENTER. Of course. Come on, how much time would it have actually taken to hop back in the car, rummage in the front-seat mess and find those glasses?

I was aware of the thought that there are people who will actually brave the chill to help someone else who is stuck out in the cold. Not everyone, of course. There are those horrific stories of people ignoring the pleas of someone stranded or sick or helpless. Recently, the news carried the item about a man who left his front door to get the paper, had a heart attack and died on his own front lawn. When the newspaper boy (or was it a mailman?) was questioned as to why he hadn’t gone for aid, he replied that he had seen the inert body but thought it was a leftover prop from the recent Halloween.

Most of the time, we read of heroes who plunge into frozen rivers to rescue someone whose car has slipped through a guardrail. We read of children who make emergency 9-1-1 calls and save a sibling’s life. I am convinced that the world is full of helping hands. More often than not, they are all about us, because God is everywhere, and He is the one who nudges the goodness in each of us toward the forefront, whispering, Why don’t you help that person in need? There are more people than we can possibly know who will help someone stuck in the cold.

I spy God!

————————————————————————————–

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Share this Article

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

When I travel, I fly so much that I rarely take driving trips these days, and when a day journey is necessary, due to reduced productions schedules (no radio broadcasts, no television shows to tape, no more publishing concerns with our in-house publishing arm), my husband and I usually travel together. David drives, and I navigate.

So when I took a trip recently to Midland, Michigan, with so much to do in the office before I left, I barely had enough time to do more than throw some clothes in an overnight bag, pack up the Global Bag Party suitcases, and print off directions from MapQuest. I didn’t take time to put a Michigan map in the car, which I was to regret.

I had forgotten that the days get dark early, by 4:30 in the afternoon, so as I was leaving the familiar territory outside the Chicago city limits, I found the computer printout hard to see in the dimming light and without my glasses. I was forced to put my glasses on, turn on the overhead car light, read the road directions, then turn off the light and take off my glasses so I could see the highway snaking in the distance before me. Consequently, I missed the fork when part of Rt. 196 went hurling off toward Holland and the other part went hurling off toward Grand Rapids. Studying the map for a little bit would have showed me that I wanted to go right instead of left.

Immediately, I was aware of my error, pulled off, found a place to park and decided to try to use the navigation system on my phone, which I had not mastered as yet. “You don’t mean you aren’t using your phone GPS…?” a son had challenged me. He had loaded it onto my cell and made sure I remembered that. Might as well give it a try now as at any other time. So I took some precious road minutes to see if I could figure it out. A slight serenity was restored when the GPS led me through the outskirts of Grand Rapids, around a detour and back to the highway, which at this point was going east. I needed eventually to be going north.

I was still acting out the glasses dance since I had to put them on to compare my GPS instructions (what was ETA again?—oh, yes—Estimated Time of Arrival) with my MapQuest directions. Because Gladys’ (my grandchildren’s name for the GPS voice) spoken instructions were extremely soft, I had to hold my phone to my left ear with my left hand while driving with my right and using it to swipe my glasses and the overhead light off and on. Obviously, this was not a safe driving situation by any means.

Eventually, I intersected M46, which was on both directional systems, but now driving in almost complete dark, through what I guessed was farmland, reminded me that I have a panic reaction to not knowing where I am going, how I am going to get there, or what the terrain I am traversing looks like. I activated my prayer antidote: Does God know where you are and where you are going? Yes. Can you trust Him to get you where you need to be at a time reasonably close to when you are supposed to arrive? Yes (except this response is a little less certain).

By now, I have figured out that the first bar on my navigation system indicates directions regarding the coming turn ahead. Aha! I’m looking for Rt. 127 North (finally, we will be turning north). I should arrive there in 45 minutes, the next box indicates. My ETA in Midland is 10:30 Michigan time, an hour behind when I thought I would reach my friends’ home.

Suddenly I am close to the big truck that is lumbering down M46 ahead of me. Its driver slows, and I realize I have been hurtling through a small town, which I could barely see, and that there is a speed limit, which the trucker ahead of me obviously knows about, but I seem not to have noticed. I decide to follow the truck—he knows these roads; when he slows, I slow, and when he speeds up, I speed up. I begin to think of the unknown driver ahead of me as a friend—a kind of guardian angel who will drive ahead of me in the dark and lead the way. I may not know exactly how I’ll get where I’m going, but he certainly seems to know how to navigate this highway. Moreover, if any of deer cross the road (as numerous signs have been warning), the big truck will hit them first, with such impact that their bodies will certainly not bounce back toward me but toward the roadside. I begin to feel smug and safe. The glasses-and-overhead-light routine are placed into temporary abeyance.

Driving through the dark, I begin to remember all the times God has directed me when I had not a clue as to what was ahead. In fact, Psalm 78 includes a wonderful recounting of God’s guidance during a journey of perplexities, shadows and darkness:

 “They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them. In the sight of their fathers he wrought marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. He cleft rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.” (vv. 11-16)

Sometimes we have to drive in the dark to recognize that God is really taking us where we need to go. I arrived safely in Midland, vowed to do a better job of planning a driving journey, promised myself that I would become comfortable using my cell navigation system. Mostly, I was thankful, thankful to a God who is Map and Navigator and sends guiding truck-drivers for those long journeys that are mostly in the dark.

I spy God!

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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