There are no limits on what God will do for you. I’m here to remind you this morning that God wants to give you a ridiculous story. A story so against the odds that He is the only explanation. Have you been coming to him with your requests to seize the ridiculous story with extraordinary details and wildly unreasonable life available to you?
Today is a special celebration in my world. Coach Lonnie and I are celebrating our 31st wedding anniversary. We have a ridiculous story. One of those “against all odds” stories. One of those, ONLY GOD stories. Maybe you’ve heard our story, well here it is again.
I grew up in a tiny little country town in Missouri. When you live in a town with the population of 2,000 people, by about the 7th grade every boy in your school is either your cousin, or you already dated him … or worse … he’s both – he’s your cousin and you already dated him. So, each summer before school would begin, I would gather a few girlfriends at my house, we would stand in a circle holding hands and pray the following prayer – “Dear Lord, please bring new boys to our school. Amen.”
Now let’s be clear. I didn’t know Jesus. I didn’t grow up in Church. At that point in my life, it was really the only prayer I had ever prayed. Lord, bring a new boy to my school. Silly. Childish. Selfish. AND HEARD.
At the young age of 15 God clearly heard my prayers and uprooted an entire family from Dallas, TX and planted them smack dab in the middle of Douglas County. Our population jumped from 2,000 to 2,004 and rumor had it one of the new residents of Ava, Missouri was a 17 year old male. Can you say heart flutters and radars set on high sensory. We didn’t even know his name – we referred to him as new boy. There were more girls than just myself on the quest for new boy’s attention, but I walked away the proud winner of his affection and I promised I would one day marry that boy.
That one day came 6 days after my high school graduation. Yes, somehow my parents let me get married immediately after graduating HIGH SCHOOL. And new boy was forever mine. We married, went on a 1 week honeymoon, then very unlike all the fairytales, he flew away to Germany to finish his tour in the Army there for 1 more year.
After that 1 year apart, he was stationed in Georgia, and we were finally able to be together. A few short months into the dream life of living on love and ramen noodles, surprise surprise, trouble hits. A blood clot was lodged in my brain stem, causing a major stroke. I lost my ability to walk or talk and my newlywed husband was prepared for his bride to never be the same. He never left my side. He never broke down and cried. He was just there. A strong and steady rock. He fed me, he bathed me, and he even shaved my legs.
And God healed me.
We have since ran marathons together, adopted children together, started businesses together, traveled the world together, and made life one big old adventure together.
And it all started with a ridiculous prayer. A prayer for God to bring new boys to my school. God gets all the glory for this ridiculous, big, beautiful story that was against all odds. I believe our God is the God of the ridiculous.
The Bible is filled with ridiculous stories. Stories of floods and rainbows, stories of wine made out of water, dead men raised, the blind made to see, a man in a whale’s stomach, a talking donkey, and people walking on water. It’s totally ridiculous. And you know what I think … I think God wants to give you your own ridiculous story.
Won’t you be willing to pray ridiculous prayers out of ridiculous faith? Won’t you invite God to move mountains for you? God loves to show up and do the impossible. He loves to do things that only he could do so we all stand in awe and give him praise and honor.
If a teenager who didn’t even know Jesus yet could ask God to bring new b...