Remember when you were a kid, and you lost something?  Did you ever seek divine intervention to find your stuff?

Sometimes I wonder if losing stuff is God’s way of letting us know that we need Him, but we still have to take action to find it.  Several years ago, one of my sons lost his Nintendo Gameboy.  He came to me and asked for help.  I asked if he had looked for it already.  He said he had.  I asked if he said a little prayer to find it and he replied, “Yes, but it didn’t work.”  We set out on our little Gameboy hunt.  Fifteen minutes into our hunt we found that Badboy (the Gameboy that is) in his brothers’ bedroom.

Why didn’t God just show my son where to find his toy when he prayed?  Why doesn’t God just answer all prayers right when we offer them?  I believe it has to do with our interdependence with God.  In defining prayer, The Bible Dictionary states, “The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.”  If God answered every prayer upon offering, would we not become completely dependent upon God and cease to play a role in our own development?  We would not have the privilege of choosing God any more than we would choose not to breathe.  God’s plan is to let us grow through our own choices.  He let’s us choose.

Sometimes praying for simple blessings might seem childish blessings and somewhat juvenile.  Yet never praying would foster the pride and detachment that defines toxic independence of God and our fellow men.  Consider this example from my life this week:  Much of my work each day involves talking on the phone with people I am privileged to work with across five states.  I speak on my phone a lot.  I have a little hands free device that allows me to put my phone down, while speaking and listening.  It looks like this:

I use that little thing a lot – several hours every week.  I lost it a few weeks ago.  I’ve looked for it everywhere I could think:  in my car, in my office, in my home, in each of my suit pockets, in all my pants pockets, in my computer case.  I couldn’t find it.  I was beginning to think I would need to buy a replacement.  It compromises my effectiveness and work efficiency to be without it.  I have to use ear buds that get all tangled up instead, or (heaven forbid) actually hold the phone up to my ear.

Wednesday night during my evening prayer, I felt to pray to find it.  The next day I was at a conference and looked in my “backup” computer case.  What do you think I found?  That’s right.  There it was.  Was it divine intervention?  I can honestly tell you that I used the case the day before as well and didn’t notice the device in there at all.  You be the judge.  I’m not saying God put it there, but I am wondering if maybe I wasn’t given a little extra help to see things I hadn’t seen before.

Why does stuff get lost?  Perhaps it’s God’s way of reminding us that we need Him; that we are interdependent, not independent of Him.  Why doesn’t he answer our prayers?  Maybe because we wouldn’t become what He wants us to become if we didn’t exert effort, exercise agency and choose to seek and follow Him.  While dependent upon Him for many things, we can’t be commanded or given ALL things.  We are interdependent with Him.

Interdependence is the “I” in the BIG Secret.  Interdependence enables us to become our best self and to find the things money can’t buy.