Did I Just Butt Dial God?

We’ve all done it.  We have no intention of actually making the call, but somehow we lean against something with our phone in our pocket, and someone in our contacts list receives our unintentional call.  Sometimes we realize it while the call is still going on, but most of the time you don’t know you did it until the person you called calls you back. 

“Hey!  Did you know your butt just called me?”

“You’re kidding me!”

“Nope.  Sounded like you were checking out at Publix.”

“Weird.”

“I tried calling your name to get your attention, but I guess you didn’t hear me.  So I just hung up and called you back.”

You feel pretty silly afterward.  And you wonder what you might have said that the person on the other end of the phone may have heard.  Most likely, the voices were pretty muffled, but if it was a private conversation, it may be a bit unnerving.

I’m reading Richard Foster’s book, Celebration of Discipline, because our church is doing a series on the 12 spiritual disciplines outlined in Foster’s book.  The chapter on Prayer seems a bit too formulaic.  I strongly believe in prayer and am committed to it as a practice necessary for Christians.  However, I have no idea how it works.  One thing I’m certain of, however, is that it doesn’t work or not work dependent on the “formula” you use.

If I’m being totally honest, I’ll tell you that most of my prayers do not get answered in the way I would most like.  I believe God’s answers to prayer are “Yes,” “Not Now,” and “Not in That Way.”  So, it’s not that I don’t believe God is listening and answering my prayers.  I just think, for the most part, He and I disagree on how they should be answered.

In his chapter on prayer, Foster talks about using imagination.  He suggests praying in a way that visualizes the answer actually happening.  For example, let’s say you know of a child who is ill.  Your prayer imagines the child’s body being healed and them rising from bed to run and play.  This was another example of the type of praying I find disingenuous – more manipulation and less “thy will be done.”  However, in an effort to fully immerse myself in the process, I decided to give it a try.

I had a friend in a personal crisis for which I had been praying.  As I closed Foster’s book and picked up my computer to check my email, I half-heartedly imagined what a solution to my friend’s problem would look like.  Without any intention of it actually being a prayer, I played it through in my mind – step by step – imagining how each person in the situation would make changes to bring about healing and restoration to my friend’s world.  Okay, I gave it a shot.  On with my day.

I have always viewed cynically the prayer stories of miraculous answers, so I wasn’t prepared for the message I received the next day from my friend.  In one of the longest texts I’ve ever received, she explained how her situation had been changed in what could only be understood as a God-provided miracle.  The details she provided were an exact reenactment of my imagination prayer from the previous day.

I was overjoyed and speechless.  What an amazing coincidence!!

My pastor chuckled when I told him the story, gently trying to help me accept this miraculous “coincidence” as an answer to my prayer.  But . . . my prayers don’t get answered like that.  Besides, it wasn’t really an “official” prayer – it was unintentional.  I never meant to “call” God.  There was no “Dear God” in the beginning or “In Christ’s name, Amen” at the end.  It was really more of a “butt dial.”

I’m still grappling with this.  I don’t understand prayer, and I’m not sure if I ever will.  But I know I need it, and God knows I need it.  Maybe I'm not meant to understand it all.  Maybe all I really need to know is, even when I’m oblivious that I make the call, God’s still calling my name and trying to get my attention.

Tami Cinquemani