Mighty Mouse Syndrome (Part II): Pride & Timidity

This post is a continuation of my last post on Mighty Mouse Syndrome (click to read).

What if God answered all the prayers that you lifted up in the past week? How dramatically different would your life and the world look today?

If your faith flow is running low (as mine often has), the culmination of your answered prayers might bring about safe travels, blessed food, and skinny jeans that allow you to exhale. That's sad. Especially when we're invited by our Heavenly Father to ask, seek, and knock (see Matthew 7:7-12).

What keeps us from praying for the BIG stuff—the needs and wants that cut so deep to the core of our hearts that we can barely find the courage to breathe them aloud?

Reasons might vary from person to person, but I'd say it's a sad slurry of both pride and timidity that can gunk-up our souls and clog our faith-flow:

Backup? Why would I need backup?
Original artwork: stevegoad.deviantart.com

Pride: I think we get hung up when we confuse spiritual maturity with self-sufficiency.

Growing from childhood to adulthood involves increasing levels of independence as we learn new skills and venture farther from our parents to explore our environments. Children of God, however, are called to remain childlike—to be humble, full of wonder, and ever-dependent on our Heavenly Father (see Matthew 18:2-4).

It almost sounds like we're forever needy... which makes the Mighty Mouse in me cringe. But if we're mature enough to swallow our pride, we recognize that needing God isn't a bad thing. We bring glory to the Father whenever His strength shows through our weaknesses (see 2 Corinthians 4:7 & 12:9–10). Of course, there's always a balance between praying for God's help and doing our part. St. Benedict called it "ora et labora," or pray and work.

Timidity: What if God doesn't come through in the way we ask? Does that mean He doesn't care? Does that mean we're not good enough to see our prayers answered? Keeping our prayers bottled up often seems like a safer option than testing what we claim we know about God's character—it gives God an "out" and it allows us to manage our deepest desires on our own. If things don't work out as we hoped, then it's merely our Mighty Mouse efforts that failed. God isn't to blame. 

But that's absurd. If our desires are rooted in right motives, we have no reason to hold back (see James 4:3). Yes, it's always difficult to grapple with unanswered prayers, but childlike Christians understand that prayer isn't all about seeing wishes come true. We pray because we long to draw close to the Father, to understand His ways, and to rely on His strength (see James 4:8; Psalm 139:24; Isaiah 41:10). And yes, we pray believing that He can "do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20–21).

I'd like to share a study on a woman who initially qualified for an Old Testament Mighty Mouse badge of independence. When God answered the unspoken prayer of her heart, however, there was no stopping the shameless audacity of her faith.

The Shunammite’s Son Restored to Life 2 Kings 4:8-36 (NIV)
HOSTESS WITH THE MOST-ESS	8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat. 9 She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”
The text says that our gal urged Elisha to stay for a meal, and he ended up stopping by whenever he passed from then on. From this information, we might infer two things: (1) She longs for God's presence. I imagine she saw Elisha passing by and rushed out to invite him in. Can you imagine the dinner conversations she and her husband would have had with the prophet? Forget small talk about the economy and the weather. He saw Elijah get taken up into heaven! Talk about faith-building. (2) She is a darn-good hostess. She invited Elisha over once, and he ended up coming back again and again. I'm thinking she had lots of good food and made him feel right at home. I'd also guess that she was Italian if the Bible didn't come out and say she was a Shunammite. Sometimes, like the Shunammite, we invite God's presence through communing with Him, but we don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen.
STATUS QUO GOT YOUR TONGUE?	11 One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him. 13 Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’” She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”
Elisha offers to put in a good word for the Shunammite. Bible expositor, John Gill, suggests that Elisha may have been offering a way for the woman's husband to be promoted, which would have led their family to relocate (view reference). The woman replies that she's happy right where she is. In the Amplified Bible, she says her people "are sufficient." But are they? As we read on, we'll find that she has kept her heart's deepest desire under wraps, even though a miracle-working prophet has asked how he can bless her. Why did she hold back? Why do we hold back, when we know that our Heavenly Father desires to give us good gifts? (see Luke 11:11-13).
ALMOST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE	14 “What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” 15 Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. 16 “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!” 17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.
Elisha's initial offer of human favors wasn't at all what the woman needed or wanted. Only a supernatural touch from God would do. In her culture, the absence of a son meant that she would have no one to care for her after her aging husband died. She also may have felt shame for failing to produce an heir. Although we don't know if she had been praying for a son, we can only imagine that this God-fearing woman would have prayed. She may have also wondered why she was undeserving of God's favor. Perhaps this is why she speaks so humbly when she receives the promise from Elisha, calling the prophet, "lord" and herself, "servant," even though she was "well-to-do" in a material sense. "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." – Proverbs 13:12 The Shunammite woman was so heart-sick for a son that she actually objected when Elisha prophesied her pregnancy. Have you ever turned down a generous offer or an expensive gift? Why do we do that, as adults? Children don't do that. Hand a kid a popsicle, and he'll take it. Hand him a Toys 'R' Us catalog, and he'll point to the toy he wants the most, regardless of the price. It's time we come to the Father like trusting children: "joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer" (Romans 12:12).
OH NO HE DIDN'T!	18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.
The woman's faith has clearly grown by leaps and bounds since Elisha's promise came true. She could have easily run out of the house with the boy in her arms and cried out to "her people" who were once sufficient for her. Surely, they would have mourned with her and brought her some comfort. However, now that she has a revelation of what God can do, she refuses to believe that her boy is dead. She immediately places her son on the prophet's bed and chases down her miracle. Have you ever faced an unforeseen obstacle that threatened to shatter your dreams? What was your immediate response?
NO TIME TO CHAT	22 She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.” 23 “Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.” “That’s all right,” she said. 24 She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”
I love the Shunammite's response to her husband: "That's all right." It's almost comical how she dismisses his questioning completely. Clearly, she isn't going to let logic or inconvenience come between her and seeking God's power in her desperate situation. Have you ever felt compelled to take a step of faith, but found yourself talked out of it by a well-meaning friend or loved one? There's a place for reasoning, certainly, but God's call to action often defies reason. After all, His ways are higher than ours (see Isaiah 55:8-9). It's important to use discernment in who we'll clue-in on our faith-filled ambitions.
IT IS WELL	25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” “Everything is all right,” she said.
What faith! Her child is dead on a rooftop, and yet she claims (or proclaims) that everything is all right. In the Amplified, she says, "It is well." In the midst of turmoil, what is the song of your heart? It's easy to croon along with Bob Marley's chorus, "Every little ting gonna be a'right," when you're sipping lemonade and swinging in a hammock between two palm trees. But when life is crumbling, only the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) can lead us to sing, "It is Well." (Click here for the powerful story behind that hymn).
THE AUDACITY	27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.” 28 “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?” 29 Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.” 30 But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.
The tenacious woman in these verses is almost unrecognizable as the same refined lady who stood in the doorway, denying her need for help. Now, all the formality is gone. She takes hold of the prophet's feet with no restraint in her desperation for God's help. Her persistence reminds me of Jesus' parable about the friend asking for bread in Luke 11. “…Because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. ‘So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened’” (Luke 11:8–10). When we consider our sinful state, it can seem audacious to consider rapping on God's door for help. Before I came to understand grace, I doubted that God would move a muscle to help me—sinful, dirty, chronically messed-up me. I knew there was nothing I could do to deserve eternal life, and surely nothing I could do to deserve God's favor here on Earth. So, I flexed my puny Mighty Mouse muscles to try to make miracles happen on my own. Needless to say, I only found frustration. Thankfully, I eventually learned that Jesus, our High Priest made a way for us to "approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16, emphasis added). Have you ever seen God come through in a miraculous way when you were bold enough to pray and keep on praying? If so, be sure to share your story to help encourage others, and even remind yourself of God's goodness.
GIVE THANKS & GO TELL	31 Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” 32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.” 37 She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
I love how the woman shows her gratitude by bowing to the ground at Elisha's feet. I wish we knew what happened after "she took her son and went out." I'd guess (and I'd hope) that she shared the details of their miracle with everyone who would listen. Let's follow her example and the example of the leper who returned to thank Jesus for his healing (see Luke 17:11-19). When God comes through, let's not forget to bow before Him with thanksgiving and tell the world how good He is.

Hope you'll stay tuned. In my next post, I'll share the story of how God led me to my "dream job," designing graphics for His glory at Living Word Community Church.