Surprise, Surprise - Free Newsletters

It seems that God needs to do something completely unexpected before I sit up and take notice that he really is at work in my life. For example, he had an employer call and offer me a job weeks after I'd given up on them. I knew God was at work because the phone call wasn't a part of my glorious little 'plan.'

In those moments I see once again that God is God—and I'm not. He is still on the throne, holding the universe in the palm of his hand. I, on the other hand, can usually find my keys in the morning—if I'm lucky.

Still, despite God's object lessons, my vision remains clouded. Like many Westerners, I suffer from what I call 'Hume Hangover,' a spiritual ailment named after the skeptical philosopher David Hume. I define it as the nagging difficulty of seeing God at work in everyday things.

As children of the modern university system, many of us are much more comfortable using the language of science and technology to make sense of the world around us. But God is at work upholding and unfolding his creation, even if we're not as attuned to that fact as we'd like.

I need to become more aware that God holds my hand throughout life. God wants to shake me out of my narrow thinking and have me embrace the supernatural more easily. Through his unexpected actions, God shows me that managing the mundane is well within his power.

— Matt Donnelly, for the ChristianityToday.com staff