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He was just a little boy, on the week's first day/He was wandering home from Sunday School and dawdling on the way...

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He scuffed his shoes into the grass, and found a caterpillar/He found a fluffy milkweed pod, and blew out all the filler/ A bird's nest in a tree overhead, So wisely placed on high / Was just another miracle that caught his eager eye/ A neighbor watched his zig-zag course, and hailed him from the lawn / Asked him where he'd been that day and what was going on./ I've been to Sunday School, he said, and turned a piece of sod / He picked up a wiggly worm and said, I learned to look for God./ A good way, said the neighbor, for a boy to spend his time/ If you tell me just where God is, I'll give you a brand new dime./ The boy looked at the wiggling worm, recalled the robin's nest / The caterpillar, the milkweed pod, the grass and all the rest./ He stood up tall and answered the man, and his voice was no way faint / I'll give you a dollar, Mister, if you'll tell me where God ain't!

This morning we enter the second week of our 50-Day Adventure, "Daring to Dream Again." Last week we saw that if you are going to dream again with God, you have to be ready to let go of some of the hurtful things from the past, including past disappointments, past sins, past labels, past images of a punishing God, and past fears. As we continue along the Lenten season, we want to keep handing over to God those barriers from the past that hold us back. God wants to free us from those things.

This week's theme is another great teaching - another skill we need to learn if we are going to dream big dreams. We need to learn what the little boy in the poem learned- how to look for God - how to see God in our everyday lives - how to have such a profound awareness of what God is doing, and where God is at work, that there ain't no place God ain't. We don't have to put on a tool belt and make a special room for Him; we don't have to buy special sound equipment so He can come in loud and clear. We just need to keep our eyes open, and learn to see God at work.

A story about another little boy. He watched and smelled his mother taking a batch of cookies out of the oven. He asked her for one, and she said, "No, you'll spoil your supper." He tried teasing and whining, but his mother was firm. So, he stormed off, and it was quiet for a few minutes. But then he came back, and the conversation went something like this: Mom, is God really everywhere? Yes, he is. Is he on the moon? Yes, he is. Is he in China? Yes, he's everywhere. Is he at my sister's school? Yes, he is. Is he in my head? Yes, he is. Is he in my tummy? Yes, he is.

There was a second of silence before the little boy said in a low-but-stern voice, "God wants a cookie."

We need to learn to trust that God is everywhere, and that makes all the difference in our lives. If we don't have security in the fact that God is at work around us, then faith becomes discouraged and desperate. And I can't imagine that there is anyone here who doesn't know what that can feel like. Our New Testament story is about Jesus in the wilderness, at his point of deepest human need, being mocked and tempted by the devil. Son of God aside, if Jesus didn't believe at that moment that God was still working in all things, then he would have had little strength to resist the temptations that came his way.

And the Old Testament story goes even further. I imagine that the story of the young warrior David cutting off a comer of Saul's robe while the king was going to the bathroom was told as a funny story in its day. But the point it makes is not a joke. It is based on the faith that God will be present and at work even in the place that it might be hardest to imagine him at all - in the cave where King Saul turned aside to relieve himself. If God is at work even then, then he must be working all the time. These are the scriptures that lead us into this lesson, and I want to follow the lead of our 50-Day material, and talk about four different ways we might look for God in our everyday lives.

The first way is in the obvious answers to prayers. Every Sunday we as a worshipping church family pray; we send forward prayer cards, light a prayer candle, put cards in the prayer box. We pray silently, we have a prayer leader, we say the Lord's Prayer together. This is one of the key reasons we are here Sunday after Sunday.

And every week, we get answers we had hoped for. People get well; soldiers come home safely; travelers arrive at their destination; good decisions get made; grieving people find comfort. Those things are happening all the time - our prayers are rewarded. The 50-Day Adventure writers urge us to notice that; to write it down in a prayer journal; to celebrate it. We fall into the rhythm of praying, and then moving on to the next thing, without noticing the ways our prayers have brought results. The other day I found myself sliding backwards in my car down the hill going up to the hospital; I had no control over my vehicle, with traffic all around me. Without being aware of it, I was praying, "Help me. Help me." When my car came safely to rest, I celebrated by not trying to go up the hill again. But I also felt deep thanks to God. My prayers were answered.

Now, two things happen. First of all, we tell ourselves that a lot of that stuff would have turned out alright whether we had prayed or not. After all, we have these wonderful immune systems, the sun shines every day, people use their common sense to solve problems, and so on. To quote a teenage philosopher I heard the other day in the food court at the mall: Well, duh! Who gave us those things? Who created the immune system, and so on. Those are ways God answers prayer every day.

The second thing that happens is that sometimes it appears that our prayers are not answered, making us wonder if they were even heard. The little girl prayed, "God, thank you for my baby brother. But what I asked for was a puppy." There are times we don't get what we asked for. There are times that the loved one does not recover; the decision turns out wrong; the soldier does not come home. Some of our deepest felt prayers are answered with a No. Millions of sermons have been preached to try to address the issue, When God says No. This is not one of them. All I want to say this morning is that I truly believe that if we are intent to look around and see what God is doing for us in everyday life, we will find ourselves with a deep trust in His love. And when the answer to prayer is No, even when it tears us apart, even when it doesn't seem fair, even when our hearts are breaking - we can still trust that God is watching over us with a wisdom far beyond our own.

That leads us to the second way we can look for God in our everyday lives - and that is to look for the unexpected ways God cares for us. One of the most amazing examples of this I have heard of is what happened to Jack Broton earlier this year. Of course, this story is much more poignant to us with Jack's death this past week; we will surely miss him greatly. I had asked if I could share Jack's story this morning because of what an amazing witness it is to God's care. As many of you know, Jack was a Viet Nam war veteran, and was seriously wounded in the war. The details of that incident were sketchy, and Jack was led to believe that most everybody in his small company was killed. As a result, it was difficult for Jack to have a sense of closure about his war experience.

Now switch scenes - to a woman cleaning out some old boxes in her attic, and coming upon a sheaf of papers she didn't recognize. As she looked at it, she realized it was a journal written by a soldier in Viet Nam. As she looked into it further, she fit the pieces together. Her mother had been the neighbor of the young man's mother. He had kept a journal of his war experiences, but didn't want to send it to his mother, knowing that she would worry. So he sent it to his neighbor, asking her to hold it until he got home. He never got home, and the papers were forgotten in her attic for decades, until they were found by the woman's daughter a couple years ago.

The young man who kept the journal was in Jack Broton' s platoon. And in the diary was the detailed account of Jack's injury. Not only that, but contrary to what Jack had thought through the years, several of his comrades did, indeed, survive the war. And this past Memorial Day, after three and a half decades of not knowing, these brave soldiers were reunited at the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D. C. It was a tremendous blessing for Jack in this past year, and I thank Sherry and his family for giving me permission to share it this morning. What a testimony to the amazing, unexpected way God is caring for us. We can see it, as Jack did, in the long view of our life-journey- God bringing amazing healing even decades after an experience. We can see it, also, if we pay attention to the moments of our lives, and notice the small blessings of each day.

The third thing our 50-Day folks invite us to look for is the 'coincidental' linkage or timing - the thing that just' happens'. What are the odds that you would run into the very person you prayed for this morning? What are the odds that you would hear the exact message on the radio that you needed to hear? What are the odds that you would find the right house next to the right school, and if you hadn't driven that way that day you never would have seen it? Coincidence - as someone once said, God's way of remaining anonymous. When those things happen, we say, "Now was that God, or was that just a coincidence?" I figure that if God was able to put the sun in space, and have the earth revolve around the sun with the perfect combination of centrifugal and centripetal force, with just the right atmospheric environment, and all the right elements to enable a squirrel to gather nuts on my lawn, not to mention the miracle of a human baby - then I can give God the benefit of the doubt over the 'coincidences' of my life. And David Main, the writer of our 50-Day Journal, agrees: don't try to figure out if it's God or fate or a coincidence - write it down, celebrate it. God is at work in your life! David's soldiers didn't wonder. In that land of a thousand caves, Saul chose to make his pit stop in the very cave they were hiding in. Probably that seemed like a mixed blessing to them - but who could call that a coincidence? What it did for them and for us was allow David to show his true nature - that he was not a cold-blooded killer who would take advantage of his enemy in a helpless position. He was a merciful and honorable man who could be a king worthy of God's great calling. This was only evident because of the amazing 'coincidence' God arranged.

The fourth and final way we see God at work is in the way He empowers those who serve Him. If you are doing what God has called you to do, God is going to empower you. He is going to give you what you need. If you really want to see evidence of God's presence, then step out and do something bold for God. He will be there.

There isn't a preacher in the world who won't testify to the experience of sitting in front of the computer, or the typewriter, and saying, "I've got nothing. The well is dry." And then later that day, or in the middle of the night, God speaks! And you can't get to the keyboard fast enough. When a Sunday School teacher runs across just the right activity; when a care team visitor finds just the right words coming out of his or her mouth; when a Miracle Sunday campaign surpasses our hopes; when a covered dish dinner comes together perfectly - God is at work. Every day. And the more we step out to work for Him, the more amazing things we will witness.

These are four ways to find God at work every day of your life. What are some others?

One of the great early teachers in the church - Clement of Alexandria - wrote, ". . .all our life is a festival; being persuaded that God is everywhere present on all sides we praise him as we till the ground, we sing hymns as we sail the sea, we feel God's inspiration in all that we do."

Is that what your life is like? That's the joy for which God created us; the life for which Christ died. This week, continue to give your painful past to God - that is a necessary, ongoing process. But now add this - look for God at work in your everyday life. You'll be amazed. If you are using the 50-Day Journal, write it down on page 40. If not, use the sermon note page in your bulletin this morning. Celebrate, and share what God is doing. It's the stuff that rekindles the ability to dream.