Faith without miracles...

One of my mission companions had a knack for telling uninteresting stories where nothing much happened...and make them sound interesting. (Storytelling ability is a skill and he had it).

One story he told went something like this: Just before his mission, my companion (Elder S.) was asked to help give a priesthood blessing to a man in the hospital who was in serious condition and not expected to live through the night. He and another elder in the ward came to the hospital and gave him a nice blessing, in which Elder S. doesn't really remember what they said. The man passed away later that night. Elder S. testified that afterwards he felt a deep sense of gratitude that he was where he was--a priesthood holder in the Church and had the benefit of the gospel in his life--and he carried that gratitude into his mission service.

Okay, so it's not a terribly interesting story on the face of it--man in serious condition, receives priesthood blessing, dies anyway. But wait...let's not give up on the story that quickly...

This story has stayed with me even though it's been close to eight years now and in spite of nothing really happened in it. Or maybe... it's because nothing really happened in it. Let's discuss the value (if any) of non-miraculous stories...

Everyone can think of plenty of 'miraculous' stories from the scriptures: the parting of the Red Sea, the raising of Lazarus, Alma and Amulek being released from the Lamanite prison, etc... I discussed two such miracles a couple of weeks ago: Daniel and the lion's den, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego from the fiery furnace. Both stories are similar: righteous men stand up for their beliefs, are condemned to death, but are saved by divine power.

What about 'non-miraculous' stories? For example, SM&A get tossed in the furnace for their beliefs and are not saved by divine intervention. (As noted in the previous post, SM&A themselves noted that there was no guarantee that the Lord would save them from the furnace and that they were prepared to die.) Would the story have even been recorded in the book of Daniel had they not been saved, then? The story wouldn't be nearly as interesting without the divine action part--and probably wouldn't be worthy of remembrance at all, despite still containing a valuable lesson. Imagine in Daniel's time there was another group of boys who wouldn't worship idols and were condemned to death--without being saved in miraculous fashion. We probably wouldn't hear about them because their story wouldn't be interesting enough for the scripture writers to record, but didn't they show just as much faith and integrity as Shadrach and company did?

The fact of the matter is: the miraculous stories are the ones that get recorded in scripture simply because of their noteworthiness--they're not things that happen every day, and thus significant enough to remember and pass on to others.  But what about the stories about things that do happen every day? Stories of the form: righteous man or woman stands up for beliefs, gets killed (or defeated in some way) anyway. Someone dies, Jesus comforts his righteous relatives...but doesn't raise him from the dead. (I mean, you have to believe Christ didn't raise from the dead everyone who passed away in the land of Jerusalem during his earthly ministry, right?)

Even today, while most people could probably tell you stories they've heard of miraculous healings following priesthood blessings, you could probably come up with even more stories about righteous people receiving blessings and NOT getting healed through divine power. The miracles are the noteworthy stories that get remembered and shared--the 'ordinary' stories do not...but aren't those ordinary stories still important?

Looking purely at the scriptural record, miracles happen so often that one might think they are a daily occurrence among faithful people, and that in our day and age we are comparatively "miracle-free" (many churches believe this as doctrine...) Yet, as Mormon notes in the Book of Mormon, only a hundredth (if that) of the things that happen within the history of any civilization can be recorded, and obviously the recorders are going to choose just the most significant and noteworthy things that happened, including the miracles. Behind the scenes, though, there are probably thousands of people in the Bible and Book of Mormon times who lived righteously and overcame trials without angels appearing or other manifestations of divine power being present in their lives.

You can understand why those kinds of stories weren't recorded because of space, but I think they're important just the same. One needs to hear both the 'miraculous' and the 'non-miraculous' stories to keep a proper perspective on life. Sure, miracles could happen (and do...occasionally) but they're probably not likely to happen within the life of any one particular person, and one probably shouldn't expect them to. It's no good to not believe in miracles, of course, but remembering those 'everyday' stories and the fact that miracles, when they do happen, are the exception, not the rule, can help us to remember that faith can be exercised without miracles following afterwards...and that's normal.

So, even if they don't get mentioned in the scriptures (or the Ensign) very often--let's not forget those stories of faith that don't involve miracles, and that they have a place in the plan of salvation, too...