God is an undisputed pro at surprises. This morning during my prayer time, I spent 20 minutes going round and round with him about a problem I’m having. I needed his solution, and as I prayed, I listened for his answers to my questions. As Henry Blackaby says, as soon as we pray out a request, we should pay close attention to what happens next. Those circumstances may contain God’s answers.

As I left that topic and began praying for others, the edge of my mind continued to listen for the Lord. I had asked, “What should I think? What should I do?” And I knew he’d let me know.

Half an hour later, still praying, I jotted down several “solutions” that had come to mind, figuring they were probably from God. Most involved two things: (1) how I could justify my own position, and (2) how I could superimpose that over another person’s opinion.

Toward the end of my prayer time, I usually close my eyes and pull a “random” (i.e. Spirit-selected) greeting card from a box I keep under my bed, so I can pray for the person who sent it. Right now the box contains Christmas cards from 2011, but the dates don’t really matter, just the people.

As I opened today’s card, the signature made me smile. It was from one of Mom’s good friends, Stella Eklund, and in the time since Stella had sent her card, she’d left Chicago and gone to heaven. I smiled because I knew how eagerly she had looked forward to that relocation day.

So I didn’t pray for Stella today. She’s leading a life of complete fulfillment and exuberant joy with a decided absence of prayer requests. Besides, if she has anything to say to the Lord, she can talk to him directly.

But that didn’t mean God wasn’t planning to use Stella’s card in another way. While I was still holding it, I thought about her sparkling optimism and her quick sense of humor. But most of all I thought about how Stella radiated grace toward others. Without a trace of judgment in her twinkling eyes or her tone of voice, she always looked for the good in people and focused every conversation on them rather than herself.

Right then I realized God was answering my earlier questions, and he did it very creatively with a Stella-prompt:

“Handle it like she would have,” he said. “Give grace. More than you have been. And for goodness sake, get your eyes off yourself.”

Through seeing this lovely lady’s signature, which caused me to remember what she was like, God answered my prayers. He showed me how I’d been part of the problem rather than The Great Problem Solver I’d envisioned myself to be. I understood, and accepted his loving (and well-deserved) reprimand.

And then I threw away my self-centered list of “solutions”.

“In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated far more than bootlicking flattery.” (Proverbs 28:23 The Message)