02.01.2010    Michael Fox CPCC, founder of m�agine!, is a professional coach and trainer, author and creative artist, whose work has been featured throughout the world. Michael is a Certified Practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.� Do you know someone who might benefit from our weekly email?   Where was God? The Twin Towers. Hurricane Sandie. Sandy Hook Elementary School. Where was God? Or closer to home, but no less tragic... The loss of a job. The dissolution of a family. Tim McCarver announcing a ballgame. Whenever the specters of adversity and injustice manifest, one of the first questions proffered is, "Where was God?" Or worse, "What kind of God tolerates such atrocities?" Of course, be it noted that the larger question of reproach runs something along these lines: "What kind of a God--a God whose antiquated moral laws repress my personal freedoms--kills little children?" Volumes have been written through the ages by men and women of great wisdom. I'm not one of them. I've felt compelled, however, to offer a salient thought or two in defense of my God's nature and integrity. He takes a lot of grief. But then he knew that might likely be the case when he chose to love those who have the power in turn to reject him. So...where was God? Is it possible for you to imagine that God might have similar curiosity wrapped up around you and I? As if to ask. . . "So...where was Michael?" Strange as it seems, this world was created and placed, with intention, under the stewardship of mortals like me and you. Well, strike that. Not under mortals like me and you. But, specifically and, in fact, me and you and our fellows, from one generation to the next. Now for some reason, as I have debated God's good sense in this plan, I'm reminded of the words of Groucho Marx, who was asked why he continued to reject the Friar's Club's coveted nomination for membership. Marx responded, "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." Judah's King David, whose curiosity happily manifested itself in wonder rather than in satire, contemplated God's wisdom in Psalm 8: When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers--     the moon and the stars you set in place-- what are mere mortals that you should think about them,     human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God     and crowned them with glory and honor. You gave them charge of everything you made,     putting all things under their authority The Lord God placed man in the Garden to tend to it and to watch over it (Genesis 2:15)--employing two highly charged terms that were used elsewhere in scripture, in tandem, exclusively of the ministry of temple priests (translated "to serve" and "to guard"; Numbers 3:7-8; 8:25-26; 18:5-6; 1 Chronicles 23:32; Ezekiel 44:14). It was this priesthood that prompted King David to wonder, "What are mere mortals that you should think about them?...You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority." Among those aspects of creation influenced by the priesthood of believers is the endless, unseen struggle "against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). This partnership shared between the divine and the mortal in the preservation of the earth and heavens finds powerful expression in John's Revelation, where the prayers of the saints are united with the judgments of God in a remarkable and powerful collaboration: And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake (Revelation 8:4-5). What if prayer was, in truth, a previously unimaginable collaboration between God and his mortal priesthood against "the spiritual forces of wickedness"? And what if prayer was, in truth, viewed far too casually among men as if it were nothing more than an expression of trust in the Father's provision? And what if prayer was, in truth, too often too easily abandoned as of little or no consequence to the Father? What if, in the wake of adversity and injustice, God looked about and decried, "Where was Michael? What kind of man tolerates such atrocities?"                        Mightn't it be possible we've missed the entire point of prayer, in particular the power of focused, communal prayer? Can you imagine a scenario in which God might depend upon the efficacy of the collaborative prayers of his mortal priesthood? With whom might you arrange a periodic time of prayer devoted to a particular need? Michael Fox m�agine! 530/613.2774 407 Myrtle Drive Farmerville, LA, USA 71241   In addition to personal and professional coaching, m�agine! specializes in spiritual transformation coaching, employing its proprietary models --Values, Vision, Voice and Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength-- as well as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator� curriculum published by CPP, the People Development People. Michael's books include  Complete in Christ, Complete in Christ Spiritual Transformation Workbook, and Biblio�files. Coaching fees are based upon a sliding scale. Contact us for details. For additional information, visit our website at maginethepossibilities.net. Limited scholarships are available for spiritual transformation coaching. On the flip side, if you are able, please inquire about opportunities to fund scholarships for those who cannot afford coaching fees. View our archives!