Deus Ex Machina

In ancient Greek literature, 'Deus Ex Machina' is the name for the plot device in which a miraculous and unconnected solution arrives for an otherwise unanswerable problem. It's criticized for it's contrived nature. A solution, many believe, must come from within the plot. You cannot be saved by a bolt of lightning on a sunny day. An uneducated peasant cannot be momentarily endowed with the gift of speech to rouse the troops for battle. Solution from within- no easy outs.

Getting ready for the oyster roast on Friday, things started going wrong. Didn't have a top to the cooking pot. Couldn't get the propane tank off the cooker. Looked like we were going to have too many folks, too few oysters. Would people bring drinks? Would there be enough food? I was stressing out big time. And I knew, I knew that I should pray about it.

But 1) I felt selfish asking for help with an oyster roast when I hadn't really asked Him about it in the first place, and
2) I wanted to fix this myself. I dug the hole, so I'll dig out.

So, for a little while, I didn't pray. I smoldered (not a Tangled, hey-good-looking smolder, just an internal anxious melting).

But, some days I'm quicker to repentance. After a few minutes of that I waded through my reluctance and grumpily prayed, "Ok God, I know you can make this all better. I put tonight in your hands. I don't know if it was the perfect idea or not, and I know I could have planned better and had all this figured out already. But I didn't, and you know it, and I'm asking for grace. Please fix it."

And He did. Great night, enough of everything, great conversation, enormous marshmallows and tasty, tasty oysters. It was fine. He took my anxiety out, and blessed us with a lot of relaxing fun.

We all want to solve our own problems. And really, we can't. We need a God who drops solutions by crane, a God who opens the trapdoor at our feet and raises us out of the mud and mire that we ourselves have made. We need a God who does not require internal solutions to our prideful plotting. We need a Deus Ex Machina.

But then again, this is his story, after all. We shouldn't be surprised. From the very beginning, a savior has been promised. When we follow his narrative instead of ours, it's not a contrived plot twist at all. It's a plan. A miraculous rescue, that's been waiting there all along.