I asked God for a secretary; He sent me a shark. Is that really a “good gift?”
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:9-11 NIV)
Did I really need a secretary? My mission colleague convinced me I did.
Although I had totally lost my eyesight, I continued responding to all of our English correspondence from our mission post in Africa. My long-suffering colleague spent seven years struggling to correct thousands of my hand-written pages, as well as countless hours of back-spacing and deleting my errors on the little Brother typewriter/word processor.
Then my parents gave us a laptop, complete with instructions in the basics for Anne-Lise. To me, the Toshiba was just another typewriter. I punched away at the keyboard and left a mountain of email for my colleague to correct and send.
After three years of dealing with the constant heavy backlog of email waiting for her attention in the draft box, the time-consuming issue came to a head. Anne-Lise issued an ultimatum.
“When we’re on home assignment in a couple of months, I want you to know that I’m not coming back to Africa unless God gives your eyesight back or until God gives you a secretary. There’s just got to be a better way.”
In the interest of full-disclosure, I must add that her ultimatum only came in response to my complaint. When the list of email sat in the draft box for as much as three weeks before being sent, I began getting email from frustrated folks who didn’t understand the delay in my reply to their requests.
We fervently prayed for God to appoint a willing servant to join us as my secretary, freeing up Anne-Lise to focus on her own duties. Throughout the months spent on home assignment, we anticipated someone stepping forward, asking if we needed a secretary.
Since we served in one of the French-speaking countries of Africa, we asked God to appoint someone who spoke both English and French. We believed our best shot for such an individual would come during our itineration in Switzerland, since it is rare for an American to speak French. On the other hand, folks in the French-speaking section of Switzerland often speak English, as well as other languages.
Though we had numerous speaking engagements, no one presented to us after any of the meetings. I’d about lost hope of a secretary joining us. Then, immediately following the last speaking assignment we had in Switzerland, the unexpected happened.
“Hello! My name is John. I enjoyed your presentation this morning. I wondered if you ever tried accessibility software?”
“Hmm? I’ve never heard of this? Is it for blind people?” I said, fearing exposure of my ultra-low tech status to this kind stranger.
“Yes. I work with blind and low vision clients. I have a program that might interest you. It will help you use the computer to write and correct your own documents and email. You’ll be able to send them yourself.”
This sounded like a miraculous invention to me, but again, I worried that I’d never be able to learn such a program. John anticipated my concern.
“If you can come to my office, I’ll show you. I can even teach you the basics in just a few minutes.”
The rest is history, as they say. Within a few weeks, I inserted the installation disk and heard a blast of the familiar theme song from the movie “JAWS.” I pictured the killer shark, and hoped I wouldn’t be swallowed up by the beast.
Job Access With Speech (JAWS) revolutionized my life. For the past fourteen years, I’ve used the special key commands to write email, word documents, and even surf the web—totally blind. Using JAWS, I continue to plan our summer programs at the Samaritan House Children’s Center. In 2010 this included a one-hour musical production our African kids presented to an amazed community of adults in our neighborhood.
In fact, I wrote my first book, am in the editing phase of the second, have had a number of free-lance articles published, write posts for two blogs, and am learning to build an author platform using social media such as facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and Instagram– all using JAWS. Truly, I never saw this coming.
How does it work? Each key, command, or combination of command keys is spoken aloud. I use headphones to block out extraneous distractions.
The user can select just how much he wants spoken to him. When writing a document or email, it’s possible to have each key spoken as it’s depressed. One can also choose to have only whole words or lines spoken.
Using the insert+down-arrow key, one can listen to another document, or one he’s writing, read out to him. The specific voice or accent, volume or speed of the reading can be regulated by the user. Combining keystrokes will allow the user editing capability, with the same facility as a sighted person.
When God withheld the answer to my pleading prayer for a secretary, He had a good reason. The Lord knew what I really needed in the long run; not just what I perceived my need to be right then. In the year of my pleading, I had no idea I’d ever write anything but letters home and mission reports. God knew better.
In addition, God answered my need with more than the physical provision in mind. The Lord knew well how the loss of independence frustrated me. Appointing a secretary would provide for the immediate need for help with correspondence, but not in a way that made me attain more independence.
Giving me the secretary I requested would have provided a short-term, limited-access solution to my writing/computer needs. Answering my pleas with the shark/JAWS instead provided a lifetime, unlimited-access solution to current writing needs, as well as those not yet on my horizon.
The impressively personal touch of my Creator blesses me even as I write about God’s answer to my prayer for help. My loving Heavenly Father knew exactly what I needed, setting every piece in motion—at just the right time—to meet my real need.
So, to answer the question in the first line of this post: Yes, the shark is really a good gift!
Have you ever had the Lord answer your prayer in an unexpected way that brought a lot more blessing than just answering the initial request would have? Please, share your story.
