So I decided to try something a little unconventional.
Last night, there was a fly with a lame wing sitting beside my “bed.” I almost killed it, until I realized it was hurt. Usually, I’m ok with smashing flies, but it didn’t seem fair to pick on a creature that couldn’t get away. Plus, it wasn’t really bothering me.
So I decided to practice healing prayer. If I take it seriously that we’re all God’s creation, then a lame fly deserves a chance to be whole just like a lame person.
I prayed over the fly for a few minutes, maybe 10 or so. And as I reached the end of my prayer, I felt the Holy Spirit moving and I felt like the fly was healed. I watched it for a while, and the hurt wing seemed to move a little, but it didn’t fly. So I told God that if the fly was gone in the morning, I would believe He fixed it.
It’s gone, in case you were wondering. And yes, I looked around the space for its dead body, but there isn’t one around.
Even as I’m sitting here writing this, it’s hard for me to believe that God would heal a fly. What point is there to that? But I keep hearing God tell me that nothing is too small for Him. I hear people say all the time that nothing is too big for God, but when I listen to the rest of their words, it always seems like they’re saying the problem in front of them isn’t big enough for God.
Each of us has struggles, and I always wondered why God would bother listening to me. My problems hurt, but not in the ways some people’s problems hurt. There wasn’t enough bad in my problems for God to fix them. He’s a busy guy, after all.
And then He healed the fly that was stuck on the wall next to my bed. The fly so small and frail, that I could have smushed it without a second thought, and gone straight to bed. No one in Africa was going to miss another fly. But I didn’t. I let God do what He does best: Heal. And I let Him do it in a way that showed me that even the smallest, most annoying of us need someone to reach out to God on our behalf.
I never doubted that God heard the big problems; isn’t that why He sent Jesus to us? But the small stuff? The things that we think aren’t even important enough to ask about? God hears that, too. He might hear it even better, if Him healing a fly is any indication.
So pray often. Pray believing that every word you say is the most important thing God will hear today. Pray knowing that He is always listening to us, no matter how “small” the thing we bring to Him may seem. Our problems might not seem as huge as someone else’s, but that doesn’t that God doesn’t want to hear from you. He cares. He wants to be there with us, and walk us through things, whether it’s the death of someone we love the most or saving the tiny fly on the wall we normally wouldn’t give a second thought.
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N.B. Still need to raise a few thousand dollars to reach my final fundraising goal. My birthday is Sunday, March 8th (probably the day this is being posted), so I’m asking that everyone who reads this donates $26 in honor of my big day! Thanks so much to everyone who already has supported, and anyone who feels like donating now.
