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 every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
There definitely is a disconnect between the paradise that is in my mind and the yard and garden that I see out my windows! The difficulty with artistic ideals for me is that I can live in them, not actualize them, for all kinds of reasons. Then I can settle into a state of what threatens to be terminal discontent.
Years back, I decided that for my own health’s sake I needed to express what I saw in my mind’s eye in concrete ways—on paper, with mixed media, or in the soil outside in my own yard.
Last summer, we made so much progress in the yard that I was convinced we could put in a vegetable garden this spring. Because the only space with enough sun is outside the front door, the garden would have to have some architectural design or it could easily degenerate into a weedy sprawl with scraggly, worm-bitten tomatoes, yellowing beans, and decomposing zucchini—which has been the state of most of the family gardens in my history.
We needed to put in raised beds. And, being given to grandiose plans beyond my capabilities—Paradise, after all, is in my mind’s eye—one week when David was in California, I bought and hauled enough wood and nails to make four (count them—four!) raised beds.
One week passed. David came home. Another week passed. A son took pity on me and, in the middle of a crunched production schedule, found time one Saturday afternoon to pound together the first box (according to the plan for making raised planting boxes, which I had torn from a magazine). Now we had a concrete template.
Another week passed. We were out of the planting month of May and into June. This was a two-person job—someone has to apply pressure on the boards while someone else pounds nails. I began to sense that I could have wood lying around for months—an all-too-familiar pattern of another idea going to rot. “Lord,” I prayed. “I’m going to need some help with this.”
On the second Sunday night of each month, we have a “Read and Intercede” book group. I mentioned to one of my young friends that this would be a good week to come and get whatever divisions from my garden she wanted to claim (the weather was in the cool 60s—perfect for transplanting). Her husband piped up, “Well, if you ever need any help with anything, let me know.” What was he thinking?
We laughed about my frequent “needing-help” dilemmas, and I told him about my boxes. “You don’t need to come and give me a hand, but don’t say you will and not fit it in. That will send me into my state of terminal disappointment.”
Well, he came on Tuesday night. He knocked two garden boxes together despite the swarms of mosquitoes and the high humidity, gave me a sweaty kiss and left with the last of the June night light.
Some prayers we pray take a long time to come to satisfactory fruition. Sometimes we even forget that we have prayed them. But there are others—often the ones we breathe into the atmosphere, desperate prayers that originate in the needy soul—that God seems to delight in answering. This was one.
David watched our friend slap the two boxes together and said, “Oh, now I know what to do. I can finish the last one for you.” Two answers for one prayer.
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.
