I suppose it was not till my iPhone reached the very apex of its ascent, 30 feet or so above me, that I gave any thought to how this all really looked.
Full-grown man, standing in the yard, hurling a smartphone up into the air with all his might over and over again, and then nearly doing cartwheels trying to catch it before it could hit the ground. Would people drive by and stare at that moment? Was a Google Earth satellite taking pictures? Was some stuffed suit at the National Security Agency spitting his coffee out all over his monitor as he beheld some Southern rube going berserk?
It was only three tosses, mind you, and I caught it each time. And thanks to the Otter Box cover enclosing it, the phone did have at least a measure of protection in case I missed.
We have little to no cellphone reception at my home. Mind you, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I tend to think that most all of us are very overconnected these days, not having so much as a moment or two off he electronic leash we have bound ourselves to. So the moments at home, untethered, are actually kind of nice.
Still, when I found myself with an urgent need to send a text, I played the game that all of us in my neck of the woods play; a hide and seek comprised of wandering around the house and yard holding the phone high above my head to try and find a bar of signal.
Zip, zilch, nada.
It was my son that suggested it, I promise.
"Dad, why don't you throw the phone way high into the air and see if that works?"
I rolled my eyes at him and walked back outside and then it hit me: That just might work. And that is how I found myself doubtless causing coffee stains on that NSA monitor.
For the record, it did not work, but it did help. I could not get the message to go through no matter how high I threw the phone, but I did get a very helpful reminder that the most important messages I ever send skyward always make it to their destination. 1 John 5:14 says, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us."
I have always been a "show me" person. And God has shown me, over and over again. I have written down, so I will never forget, many times that God has answered prayer in such a way that it could not be written off as coincidence. There have been times where I prayed, and did not give so much as a hint to any living soul what specific thing I was praying for, and God has come through.
I have also noted many times that God did not do what I asked, and then later the reason for his refusal became so incredibly clear that I could only humbly bow and thank him as much for the times he says no as I do for the times he says yes.
In his lifetime, the great George Muller recorded tens of thousands of specific answers to prayer as he tended to thousands of orphans in England. Jesus himself prayed early and often. Since there is a God in heaven, prayer is the most powerful thing we have at our disposal.
And it really, really beats the fire out of standing in the yard like a crazy man, tossing your smartphone up into the air.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C.,, and the author of several books that are available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.