I STILL can't believe this happened. It is one of the most outrageous miracles that I've ever experienced. There's NO explanation outside of God Almighty moving in a miraculous way.
It happened several years ago (2018), so I've had a chance to process a bit. My educational background is in engineering so I tend to be a logical problem solver type of thinker. I've approached this experience from every angle I can think of...nothing from the purely human realm makes sense. Like...not even a little.
The very first part of this story starts strangely. I was as a business convention in NOLA. I was alone (my husband would normally come with me, but he couldn't make it). I was stressed. I was in a bit of pain after having recent surgery. All in all, it was just feeling like this trip was a terrible idea.
And it was HOT. It was all-the-windows-are-covered-in-condensation hot. Sticky humidity felt absolutely suffocating. I am my most grumpy in heat and humidity lol!
One afternoon I was meeting with some friends at their Air BnB. I vividly remember sitting in the blissfully air-conditioned lobby of my hotel and pulling up the Uber app on my phone to get a ride to their place.
I'd done this a million times before, and I was about to click the "request car" button, when I sensed the Holy Spirit say "order the XL car". I paused while my finger hovered over the button and while logic and reason spun through my brain. I'm traveling alone. I have one purse. I don't need an XL. Why would I spend more on the XL ride?
I was about to click the button, when "order the XL car" rang in my spirit again.
What the heck? Why would God care which size of a car I would ride in?
I had a thought that maybe I was about to be in a car accident and He was positioning me for protection in a bigger car?
My logical (and frugal) brain was grumpy...but I was certain that I heard correctly.
I clicked the "order XL" button and waited for my driver.
Aaaand...let the embarrassment begin haha
My driver pulled up in his big SUV, and it was clear that he was expecting a crowd because he hustled around the vehicle to open all the doors and the back hatch for a load of bags.
I walked up holding my little handbag and said hello.
He smiled, said hello, and looked around for the rest of the passengers.
"It's just me", I said.
There was an awkward pause...a "pregnant pause" some might call it...as he looked at me and must have been thinking "this woman is not from around here". He might also have been thinking I was wasting his time.
He walked around the car and closed all doors but one. I sheepishly climbed in, and the small talk began.
I was tense. Not only do I *detest* small talk, but I found myself braced for some sort of crash that God was surely protecting me from.
The journey to my friends' place seemed to take forever. I eventually settled in and relaxed. We chatted about the weather, the conference I was in town for, and about his journey as an Uber driver. It turned into a friendly and enjoyable drive.
Alright - that's the setup. It was important to share because it felt sort of mysterious. Why would God want me to spend extra money on an XL car that I didn't need?
You're about to find out.
First - I want you to consider some odds. I want you to REALLY grasp the magnitude and impossibility of this happening.
- How many various sounds do you suppose can come from the human mouth? Consider all the world’s languages, dialects, and intonations. Thousands? Millions? Billions? I think we can agree on a LOT.
- If someone began to just let their mouth go…making random babbling sounds that mean nothing to the speaker…what do you think the odds are that legible words would come from that person’s mouth, just by sheer chance or luck? Pretty slim, right? But, not impossible considering all the options available in all of human language over time. The speaker might land on a few sounds that are very similar to a word, or maybe even an actual word. Especially when you consider very simple words like “a” or “the” or “and” and all the translations into other languages. Simple words, simple sounds = pretty decent odds that at least one of those simple words could be uttered by accident.
- What about the more complicated words? They’re maybe longer or more complex, but still, it’s not impossible to think that an actual meaningful word with heavier meaning or implication could be spoken by accident.
- Ok - if that same person who is just randomly uttering sounds - just any sound that rolls off their tongue keeps talking, what are the chances that several words with meaning would be spoken all together. I’m talking about a short phase or sentence. Even just a part of a sentence or the beginning of an idea. Remember, to the speaker, these sounds mean absolutely nothing. They’re gibberish. There’s no effort of the speaker’s mind happening here…no trying to “make sense” of the sounds coming out of their mouth. Think about it — to get words to work together in order - those odds are pretty slim. It takes a human years to learn how do do that in meaningful ways. “Mama, book?” “Milk please” “No, sleep!” are all phrases common to a toddler learning to speak their mind, and they typically mispronounce simple words for months or years until they get a firmer grasp on the language.
- Next, before we go deeper, let’s consider the background of the speaker. Basic American education. Caucasian woman. College degree in sciences. Some German language training in high school, but nothing that really stuck. No worldly travel experience (went to English speaking Canada a few times). English was the only language spoken while growing up and going to school. Not exactly a “worldly” or “diverse” background or training.
- Back to the statistics. Sounds…words…meaningful phrases. Still with me? Our odds are getting slimmer by the minute.
- Ok, so our speaker is just babbling away. No meaning to the speaker at all. Truth be told, this woman is feeling slightly crazy! What do you suppose the odds would be for this babbling to be not only words, but meaningful words…meaningful worlds that are occurring in order to create meaningful phrases…meaningful phrases that are a coherent and applicable response to a conversation with someone else. Think about that. If someone asked you a question in a language you DON’T know…let’s say Japanese…what are the odd that you could randomly babble your way to a logical and meaningful answer to their question? In ANY language? Even MORE slim, right? The odds are getting pretty crazy that something like this could happen.
- Ok, not say your meaningful answer to their question is in that person’s native language of Japanese?? Ridiculous to even consider, right?
sounds into words
words into phrases
phrases that are a meaningful response (context)
meaningful response in the proper language to the listener
It would be like a 2 month old baby making random noises with their mouth only to "accidentally" make sounds that turn into saying "Hi mom, I'm feeling a bit hungry now. Would you feed me please?"
Right? It DOESN'T happen.
If this happened, you’d say it’s a MIRACLE, right? If you’re like me, you’d begin to think “how did this happen outside of some move of an intelligent God?” The odds of it happening by “chance” are just too astronomical to even comprehend.
Well buckle up, friend.
I am that speaker.
This happened to me.
The short story is this:
I was riding in that XL Uber I told you about. The driver and I chatted in a friendly way as he drove me to my destination about 30 minutes away. As he dropped me off, he said “good luck!” (the area he was dropping me in seemed a bit scary haha). I responded without thinking (and rather embarrassingly) “I don’t need luck, I’ve got Jesus”….honestly, how cheesy is that? I’d never said such a dorky thing, and I was instantly surprised by my words and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment!
As I walked to the building, he rolled down his window and said, “Wait! Did you say you know Jesus? Will you come back and tell me about this Jesus?”
I was floored! I walked back and got in the car to talk to the man.
He asked me what I knew about Jesus, so I gave him the 30 second Gospel message. He proceeded to tell me that I was wrong, and about how many Christians he’d converted to Islam over the years. He was quite the Muslim apologetics expert! He didn’t actually want to know about Jesus from me…he wanted to convert me to Islam.
We were disagreeing wholeheartedly, but it was very friendly and loving. We eventually agreed to disagree.
Before I left, I felt a prompting to find a way to stay in touch with him so I asked him if I could get his cell phone number so we could stay in touch - believe me, I’d NEVER done that before! He agreed, with the caveat that he’d never shared his personal cell with a customer. We were both feeling strange about it, but agreed to stay in touch.
The next morning, I was awakened with a clear message from the Holy Spirit: “Daiquiri, share your prayer language with him”
I was appalled.
APPALLED
My prayer language/“praying in tongues” was a very delicate and new thing for me. Not to mention exceedingly private. I hadn’t shared it with ANYONE, and frankly, I was thinking of giving up on it because I though for sure that I was just making it up.
I was especially frustrated that since I’d begun praying in tongues, the SAME sounds kept coming out of my mouth on repeat. I thought for SURE that I was just all in my head with it, and it was nothing but gibberish. Like a meaningless tune that I couldn’t get out of my head, but that didn’t have any actual words or meaning.
So yeah…to share with a random Uber driver? I was horrified by the idea!
I said an absolute and immediate "NO WAY" to that prompt, but He would just not leave me alone about it. I'd love to say that I trusted His voice and obeyed, but the truth is that I knew this prompt would not leave my mind at peace until I obeyed.
So, after about 30 minutes of fruitless negotiations with God to send someone else on this assignment, I obeyed. And do you know what happened?
The random sounds that came out of my mouth made actual words.
Meaningful words.
Stitched into a meaningful phrase.
A phrase in the Uber driver’s primary language.
And not just any phrase, a prayer to God Almighty, no less.
Now you tell me…WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
God is real, friends.
God is alive.
God did NOT stop speaking once the Bible was written.
He did not stop moving through His people.
He even used a midwestern housewife and mom to grab the heart of a die-hard Muslim.
God is alive and moving and working to capture hearts, and His gospel is still sometimes delivered with the backing of miracles that no one can explain unless coming to the conclusion that God is real and the Gospel of Jesus is Truth.
Be encouraged, brothers and sisters - believe for big things from our living God - and keep spreading the Word!
And take it from me...be RADICALLY OBEDIENT. It seems that the most outrageous marching orders tend to result in the most miraculous outcomes.
Personally, I think God loves to set us up for miracles. He loves to "show off"...not in a braggadocios way (although He's certainly the only One with a right to do so)...but in a "I'm here, I'm working, I love you" kind of way. Maybe it's less of "showing off" that He's so good at...and more of SHOWING UP.
He wants us to know it's HIM.
And friend, if you have doubt about God and the Gospel of Jesus…please get alone and do your best to talk to God. Your prayer can be utterly weak and ugly…just make it REAL. He stands at the door of your heart and knocks - let Him in! He is trustworthy and so very good.
* You can see a bit of our text conversation below in the screenshots I saved.
