Undercover Wife and Mother

If you haven't seen the Emmy Award-winning television show, surely you've heard about it: Undercover Boss.  A high-ranking executive of a corporation dramatically alters his or her appearance and goes undercover as an employee in their own company to "investigate" how the firm really works. And whereas I realize it is "reality TV" (are there any shows that AREN'T these days?), by the end of the hour when the overlooked employees are being rewarded for their faithful service and hard work, tears are streaming down my cheeks leaving trails of black mascara all the way down my neck. What can I say?  I like the show and have it scheduled to record each new segment on my DVR.

But bosses on reality TV shows aren't the only ones who entertain such clandestine operations.  As a wife and mother, I certainly don't change my appearance and infiltrate my husband or children's personal lives as someone they don't recognize, but in a sense, I do go undercover.  I pray for them.  Hudson Taylor was the one who wrote those lines and put me on to my own covert operations.  Before the young missionary left for England, and ultimately for China, he resolved to learn, as he himself said, "to move man, through God, by prayer alone."  Doesn't that sound a little "undercover" to you?  It does to me.

And so I pray, and when I do, undoubtedly, one of two things happen.  God either moves that man or woman to act ... or He moves me.  In other words, He changes MY heart.  

Do I understand prayer?  You bet your life I don't.  But this I DO know.  When we pray, things happen. And when we don't pray, things DON'T happen.  As E.M. Bounds wrote, "How vast are the possibilities of prayer!  How wide is its reach!  What great things are accomplished by this means of grace!  It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not otherwise do if prayer were not offered.  It brings things to pass that would never otherwise occur."

So why not engage in your own covert operation and do a little "undercover" work on behalf of those you love?  One way or the other, things are going to change.  But don't be surprised: it just might be you.

Just an ordinary moment...