Daily Devotion:

Title: The Fix

Date: January 30, 2013

The Fix, by Percival Everett, is a perceptive and witty short story about the complications of miracles.  

The hero is rescued from a dark alley beating by a deli owner who feeds him, gives him a job, and later discovers that his employee can fix anything — old appliances, radios, marriages, front teeth and any physiological problems of his deli customers. Of course, patrons’ exploit of his talents gets out of hand and it turns out that using miracles to fix things is a complicated business with unforeseen consequences. 

Percival Everett observes that, like the rest of life and even with miracles, there is cause and effect. When a miracle occurs, something else, somewhere else, changes, too.

When God does not answer our prayers, maybe it is because the picture is bigger than we know, more complicated than we can imagine. Even if our prayers do not get answered the way we want them to be answered, God sees a bigger picture.

When we pray, even desperately — God give me this, God make this happen the way I want, God fix my marriage, God bring him home, God save the child’s life, God do not let me get caught, God help me, whatever it is —we’re praying that our will be done, which, for complicated reasons beyond our comprehension, may not be God’s will.

Let’s Pray: Dear God, in all things, even in the desires of our hearts, let Your will be done. Let Your will become my will. Amen.

Here’s a Thought: You can’t always get what you want, but if you pray, sometimes you may get what you need.*

Sources:

Everett, Percival. The Fix, read by Isaiah Sheffer. From: The Best American Short Stories 2000, Kennison, Katrina and Doctorow, E. L. (editors), New York, 2000. 

*With thanks and apologies to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. You Can't Always Get What You Want http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Always_Get_What_You_Want