“Prayer is the difference between the best we can do and the best God can do. And that’s a big difference! . . . Prayer is escape velocity. It’s how we get outside our spacetime limitations. It’s like our prayers exit the dimension we call time, and we never know when or where or how God will answer. But this I know for sure: There is no expiration date on prayer.”- Mark Batterson
As Mark Batterson moves on in Chapter 3 of A Million Little Miracles, he talks about a concept introduced by Stuart Kaufmann called the adjacent possible. It’s the thing made possible by something else. For example, elevators made the skyscraper possible. And Florida was made possible by air-conditioning. Prior to the advent of air-conditioning, less than a million people lived in Florida. Today, though, Florida stands as the third most populated state.
On a foggy night in 1902, a twenty-six-year-old engineer named Willis Carrier stood on a train platform. A eureka moment occurred as Carrier wondered, Could fog be recycled to cool a building? Carrier patented the ideas and then pitched it at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. He called the exhibit the Carrier Igloo of Tomorrow.
Next, Mark applier the biological principle of the adjacent possible to theology. In the Gospels, Jesus exercises His authority over everything via one miracle after another. As a result, with each miracle Jesus pushed the envelope called impossible. Until the empty tomb eliminated that word.
Hence, Pastor Batterson addresses the seven miracles recorded in the Gospel of John. Mark stresses:
“All of these miracles point to the adjacent possible. When Jesus walked out of the tomb on the third day, all bets were off! All things are possible. Simply put, Jesus is the adjacent possible. He is bigger than any impossible situation you may find yourself in. . . . Impossible situations set the stage for God’s most amazing miracles.”
Above all, Mark exhorts, don’t wait to celebrate. Even when a partial miracle occurs, praise God!
Today’s question: What does it mean to you that there’s no expiration date on prayer? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “A reality distortion field”