Believe Big Podcast

92-Mark Batterson - A Million Little Miracles

• Ivelisse Page & Pastor Mark Batterson

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What if the miracles we’re looking for are already happening all around us? 

In this episode of the Believe Big podcast, Pastor Mark Batterson takes us on a journey through his latest book, A Million Little Miracles, challenging us to see the divine in the everyday. From the biochemical wonders of our bodies to the unexpected ways God works in our lives, Mark shares eye-opening insights and personal stories of faith, healing, and gratitude. He even makes a case for a nationally mandated nap time—because sometimes, the best way to reset is to rest! 

Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will leave you seeing life through a new lens—one filled with awe, wonder, and a million little miracles.

Learn more about Pastor Mark Batterson:

https://www.markbatterson.com/

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Ivelisse Page:

Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take deep dive into your healing with health experts, integrative practitioners, biblical faith leaders. And cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page and it's an honor to spend this time with you. Well, today we welcome back to the podcast my friend Pastor Mark Batterson, to talk about his new book, A Million Little Miracles. Mark serves as the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC one church with multiple locations. NCC also owns and operates Ebenezer's Coffee House, the Miracle Theater, The DC Dream Center and the Capital Turnaround as gathering places for the community and funding for kingdom causes. Mark serves as the lead visionary for the Dream Collective, which equips and supports dreamers who long for revival in the church, reformation in the Kingdom, and the Renaissance and culture. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the author of 24 books, including one of my favorites still, and New York Times bestseller, The Circle Maker. Mark is married to his beautiful wife and my friend Lora, and they live on Capitol Hill. They have three children, Parker Summer, who's married to Austin and Josiah. Welcome back to the show, Mark!

Mark Batterson:

Oh, Ivelisse. Thank you. And can I make one, one little addition? We now have a grandson, our first grandson, so it's a new chapter of life. We are loving it. And just on a personal note just thank you for the way that you walked Laura and I through a couple of battles with breast cancer and you have been so gracious to us, encouraged us and, we wouldn't be where we are without Believe Big. So, grateful and so fun. Excited to have this conversation.

Ivelisse Page:

Aw. Well, thank you for taking time to be with us. I know how busy you are and congratulations on that grandbaby. That is totally just an incredible blessing. So thank you and congratulations.

Mark Batterson:

Thank you.

Ivelisse Page:

So we always start our podcast with our guest's favorite health tip. Do you have one that you could share with us as we start today?

Mark Batterson:

Well, I'll throw out a couple of random things. I, everybody has a different circadian rhythm, and so I wanna be really careful. Oswald Chamber said, let God be as original with others as he was with you. So, I'm not prescribing, but a NASA study found that a 26 minute nap increases productivity, 34%. So, for all my nappers out there, it resets my brain. I have a new burst of creativity a new burst of energy. And so I'm just wired in a way. I can't work wire to wire and I work, you know, 10, 11, sometimes 12 hour days. I can't do it without either a little nap in between or maybe some exercise to reset. So, there you have it.

Ivelisse Page:

I love it. I love it if

Mark Batterson:

I, in fact, Ivelisse, if I was running for political office, I would probably, my platform would probably be a nationally mandated nap time. You don't have to nap, but everybody gets a nap time. I think we would be a nicer, nicer nation because of it.

Ivelisse Page:

I believe it. I believe it. I, and during nap time, I said, if you don't want a nap, that's okay. As my kids got older, it's quiet time. So there you go. So I love that. So A Million Little Miracles is such an uplifting book. What inspired you to write it and what message do you hope readers take away from it?

Mark Batterson:

If we were doing a word association and we hear the word miracle, we tend to think of things that defy the laws of nature or maybe even defy a doctor's diagnosis. And you know, we can talk about that. I've experienced those kinds of miracles but at the same time. There are 37 sextillion biochemical reactions happening in the human body at any given moment. And Ivelisse, I didn't flip a switch this morning. I don't even change the batteries. Like, it just it happens like your heart will beat a hundred thousand times six quarts of blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries. If that's not miraculous, I'm not sure what is. You know, every day about 330 billion cells will recycle. So we're all about 1% different than we were yesterday. And I think those are miracles in and of themselves. And I happen to believe that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. And in fact, you know what? Our body, even, you could not afford the pharmacy. Or the the drugs that your body produces, be it oxytocin or serotonin, you couldn't afford it. And your body just does it. And I think all of that is pretty amazing. So, I think miracles are kind of all of the above, but this was a book about, Hey, can we appreciate the million little miracles that are happening all around us all the time, happening in us all the time. So that was kind of the motivation for writing the book.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. Well, I love it. And you know, your books often explore the power of faith in action as well. So how did writing this book challenge or deepen your own faith?

Mark Batterson:

Well, I think we either take things for granted or we take them for gratitude and, you know, I think that the happiest, healthiest, holiest people on the planet are those who just don't take anything for granted. And I wish this wasn't the case, Ivelisse, but you have some experience with this. You know, I've never, my wife has had two bouts with cancer. I haven't had cancer, but my, in my intestines ruptured and I was two days on a respirator, probably should have died. Lost 25 pounds in a week. Had an ostomy, had to wear that ostomy bag for about six months. It was a hard year. And I tell you what, after you walk through that kind of experience, you, you just don't take as many things for granted. You tend to take everything for gratitude and and so I think, you know that's, I think that's just really important that we just cultivate that attitude of gratitude and it has more to do with health than what we think. And I think the the psychosomatic nature of we're body, mind, spirit, and all those things affect everything else.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. I mean, they've even done scientific studies that you can't be in a state of gratitude and fear at the same time. Yes. It has to be one or the other. And so if you're experiencing gratitude, then your cells are thriving, your body's thriving, and they've actually done studies on fear that when you're in a fear state, your body becomes frozen and it can't heal. So it's really important to remember how God created our amazing body to thrive. And your suggestion and confirmation and reminder of gratitude is one that we need to always remember. So thank you for sharing that.

Mark Batterson:

Can I throw in kinda one fun little thing? Yes. As someone that had severe asthma for 40 years, and I don't know how else to say this, but God healed my lungs. July 2nd, 2016, prayed a prayer and I have not touched an inhaler from that day to this day. After 40 years of like, there weren't even 40 days where I didn't take multiple puffs of a rescue inhaler. So, when that happened, Ivelisse started really researching the respiratory system. Just very curious about kind of the way that, that, that works, the way it, the way inflammation may affect it, for example. And this is fascinating to me. So, you know, we have a sympathetic nervous system fight or flight. We have the parasympathetic, the rest and digest that everybody kinda knows that what I think is fascinating is that most of the nerve endings that control the parasympathetic nervous system are attached to the lower half of the lungs. And so if you stop and think about it, if you're in a state to fight, or flight, you have surface breath. You don't breathe deep, you breathe very shallow. But there's this little way to trick your system that literally a deep breath. In fact, maybe all of us should do it right now. Take a deep breath. And then you let it out. And you can almost feel the physiological effect that there, there's something about even the way that God has designed us, that deep breath can then kind of put you back into that parasympathetic state. And part of why I love, Believe Big and love you is that those are the kind of things that you help us do. That, you know, there, there are ways that. There's some things we cannot control, but there are a lot of things that we can control and I just thought that was kind of fun to throw it out there. I mean, I have never had so much fun researching a book. I mean, 688 footnotes went in a thousand different directions, but just never cease to be amazed at, the human body and about everything else.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. And you know, you mentioned about your asthma and you must have prayed before those 40 years right? Or all those 40 years that God would help to heal it. What do you think was the difference? Like some people say, man, I've been praying over this for years and I don't feel like God's hearing me or, what do you feel was the difference in God's timing of saying, okay, not only did he heal you of that, but then you ran a marathon without an inhaler as well. So, you know, to dot that I and cross that T. So what do you think was the result of that? Like why?

Mark Batterson:

Yeah, and I don't think I know. I, there are just some things that I have what I call a Deuteronomy 29:29 file. And I promise everybody that's listening. Yeah, I pastor a church. I'm not gonna turn this into a sermon, but but that is my worldview. That's kind of my matrix that things make sense. And so, Deuteronomy 29:29 says that the revealed things belong to us. The secret things belong to God. So Ivelisse, over the years I've had to put a lot of thing things in that Deuteronomy 29:29 file, things that I don't understand. They just, they haven't been revealed to me. So why would God not heal me for those 40 years? But then on one day bam. He does. I'm not sure I understand that. And you know, before we planted and pastored National Community Church here in DC, which the Lord has blessed and it's thrived, I mean, we tried to plant a church in Chicago and it failed. Like, I don't totally understand that I and Ivelisse, I don't understand why my father-in-law at 55, 2 days after his 55th birthday and he had just gone to the doctor and the doctor had just said, you could drive a Mack truck through your arteries. How is it then that he dies of a massive heart attack at 55? Like we, that still doesn't make sense to me 27 years later. So I just think the human condition is such that I don't think we're gonna have all the answers on this side of the space time continuum. I think the day will come that some of those things will make sense. But there are just not easy answers to those questions. And at the same time if there were, if you could answer every question, faith and trust would be out of the equation. But, part of it is learning to trust the heart of God when I can't see the hand of God.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. I think that is such a amazing message. Thanks for sharing that, because I feel that even in the cancer world, right. I think one of the messages that Jimmy asked me is. We need to make sure that we tell the Lord that we trust him no matter how this turns out. Like we have our agenda, we have our hopes on how things turn out. We he's the only sovereign one and he's the one that knows the beginning and the end. And we just need to surrender to that. And I think that act of surrendering brings peace. And allows us to continue on, you know, with however many days we have ahead. So, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. You know, and that brings me to, I know that a lot of people that are listening right now have a hard time and they struggle with believing in miracles. So how would you encourage somebody who wants to believe but finds it difficult and, you know, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about miracles?

Mark Batterson:

Yeah, well, I might remind us, just take a moment to remind us that we are on a planet that's spinning at a thousand miles per hour and speeding through space at 67,000 miles per hour. So even on a day, we didn't get much done. We did travel 1.6 million miles through space. Now I sometimes jokingly ask like when was the last time you thank God for keeping us in orbit? And the answer is. Never, like I, I don't kneel next to my bed Lord. I wasn't sure we were gonna make the full rotation today, but you did it again. Like I think that God is so good at what God does that we tend to take it for granted. And so part of the impulse in writing this book was I. I've met people who would say, I've never experienced a miracle. And I would say, with all due respect, you have never not, like, think about the astrophysic kind of miracles that are happening. I mean, we haven't even thrown in the fact that the Milky Way is speeding through space as well and spinning and we don't even get dizzy. We can keep our balance pretty good. I just think that, it kind of begins with an appreciation that, wow, everything, well, nothing is as simple as it seems, and everything is more miraculous than we can imagine and I think that baseline appreciation then helps us understand that. Yeah, even though we call miracles things that are kind of inexplainable the truth is all of it is pretty miraculous. So that's kind of my baseline.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah, I love that. And then you also emphasize the need to cultivate a holy curiosity. How can someone facing, you know, a difficult season like a health crisis rediscover a sense of wonder and faith in the midst of uncertainty.

Mark Batterson:

Yeah. That is sort of one of my rules of life or mantras. I think I would've been about 22 when I picked up a biography on Albert Einstein, 878 pages and page 755 changed my life. Albert Einstein said, never lose a holy curiosity. And there was something about the juxtaposition of those two ideas that really impacted me. And so Ivelisse I'm serious, honestly, about everything. Like there's hardly anything that I don't find pretty interesting. Pretty amazing. But then I would even push that a little bit further. So Lora and I have a counselor and you know, I'll just put this out there. I've never met anybody that doesn't need counseling at some point for something like all of us need a a little bit of help along the way. Ours happens to be a family systems therapist, and so it's kind of the Dr. Murray Bowen, that kind of system of thought. But at the heart of it is this idea of cultivating non-anxious curiosity. And I can't even tell you that has changed the game for us. In terms of parenting, like the way that we even parent our children, occasionally you just like, you know, what were you thinking? You were not thinking. But there's a different approach path where instead of making people defensive, you just cultivated genuine curiosity. In fact you know, everyone is my superior in some way and that I learned of them. That's what I want my posture to be. And then as it relates to, say a cancer battle or cancer journey I think I've shared this before, but man, this one's worth sharing again, that, you know, Lora read this poem when she got that first diagnosis and it posed a question. And the question was this, what have you come to teach me? That's a really hard question to ask when you get a hard diagnosis or you're in a difficult situation, but I just don't know how else to make it through. You really have to take a learning posture, kind of a growth mindset and genuinely ask the question, what have you come to teach me? And I tell you what, Lora and I have grown so much and I might add, grown closer to each other through the journey because hey, this isn't what we would've signed up for. But we're in the class and either we can learn or not learn, and we're gonna take a learning posture. What have you come to teach us?

Ivelisse Page:

That's great. Yeah. I think one thing that I try and do along with that is to say, you know, Lord, take from me what you need to take. You know, that's act of surrender again, is keeping your palms open, facing up and say, Lord, take from me what you need to take and give me what I need to receive today. So that goes along with what you just said. I love that. You know, at Believe Big you know, we see prayer as a powerful part of healing. Can you share a story from your book or life where prayer led to a breakthrough or an unexpected miracle besides your you know, with your breathing and your asthma?

Mark Batterson:

Wow. How much time do we have?

Ivelisse Page:

We have 10 more minutes. Yeah,

Mark Batterson:

I may come at this from a little different angle.'Cause you know, I could tell you a story about a prompting to pray a perimeter around Capitol Hill 29 years ago. And pretty crazy. We own six properties worth about$85 million on that prayer circle. So I've, I mean, we've seen real estate miracles. We've seen health miracles. So, you know, I've experienced too many miracles not to believe God for the next one, but can I just, can I maybe come at this with a very simple observation? I think for most of us our default setting in prayer is, Lord, change my circumstances. Like, in other words, just whatever's happening around me change that. The problem with that is this, that sometimes the circumstances you're asking God to change are the circumstances that God is using to change you. Now, let's be very careful here. I think our theology is really important. I think sometimes we, we mistakenly say that God causes c certain things. And I just don't I think we live in a fallen world where, disease is part of the human condition. And these bodies deteriorate. And you know, I don't know who said it first, but n none of us are getting outta here alive. Ivelisse, like, you know, it on one level, like death is the destiny of all of us. And so ironically, even if you're healed, it's a temporary healing. There, there is an end point. Sorry that turned into a little bit of a went in a little different direction that I planned. But here is my thought or what the Lord is really teaching me. I wanna pray, change my circumstances, and if that doesn't work, Lord, change others.'cause it's way easier than changing me. But, I really have come to a place where my predominant prayer is, Lord, change me. Now if you wanna change the circumstances and you wanna change other people, that's great. But at the end of the day, end of the day, there's that old song that says it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer. So I think just prayer. Yes, it changes things. I think prayer is how we write history before it happens, but I think prayer is also taking a posture where God can begin to do a work in us and change our minds, change our hearts, change our attitudes, change our outlook, and all of those things have a tremendous impact on our lives. So, instead of praying, change my circumstances, change others. I think our first prayer should probably be, Lord, change me.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes. Yeah. That's great advice. You know, I think what do I need to change within me to come all that he's asked us to be? I love that works in marriage too, right? We can see the fault in our spouses, right. But it sure does. Lord change me. You know, many times it's us and not them, so I.

Mark Batterson:

Yeah.

Ivelisse Page:

How can we as believers, you know, become more aware of being a miracle in someone else's life?

Mark Batterson:

Yeah, and I love that. You know, I immediately, what popped into my head was this, remember that little boy with his brown bag lunch? He had five loaves, two fish, and you know, in, in our hands, five plus two equals seven. But if you take what you have in your hands, put it into God's hands. Five plus two equals 5,000 remainder 12. What I love about that story is how that little boy just a small act of love or faith or obedience, whatever you wanna call it. Like, it becomes a miracle for 5,000 people. So I just I think we never know how our sacrifice can be a miracle for someone else. So I wanna make sure that I'm posturing myself in a way that, well, and Ivelisse, I think part of it starts with, I mean, let's just. Call it as it is, we're in a cultural moment where we're shaming and blaming, baiting, trolling, canceling. Just a lot of negativity where we tend to see a common enemy instead of common humanity. And so I think it starts with the theology of dignity. That the image of God in me greets the image of God in you. Part of what I write about in the book is I'm a little bit weary. Being made to feel foolish for believing in intelligent design when it should be the exact opposite. Common sense and common science point towards we recognize intelligent design when we see it, whether it's a well plated meal in nice restaurant or a building that clearly had an architect and an engineer. This narrative that we are a cosmic accident, the result of random chance is a false narrative and it does tremendous damage to the human psyche. I. What, what makes us think we can believe that and it not affect the souls of people who buy into that. So here's what I believe. I believe you are the image of God, the apple of God's eye. You're God's workmanship. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. You were knit together in your mother's womb by God. He ordained all the days of your life. You were made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and, that's the narrative of scripture. And I think it's a critical starting point if we're gonna regain just the humanity of treating each other with love and respect. And so that's kinda where my mind goes when you ask that question.

Ivelisse Page:

Hundred percent, you know? And I think it gives us a standing point of who we are in Christ, you know, who we were created to be, and not that we're just some accident that happened by chance. So I love that you shared that. And to add it another step or another layer to that, you know, for those walking alongside a loved one with cancer, what are some ways that they can be a part of the miracle in that person's life?

Mark Batterson:

Yeah, well I think part of it is, there are gonna be moments where even a guy named Moses, his arms got tired. Needed Aaron and her to kind of come alongside and lift up those arms. So I wanna or to use a gym, gym metaphor, I'll throw this in there for your husband, Jimmy. Great. That when you're at, when you're at the gym, bench pressing, sometimes if you're gonna push your limits, you need a spotter. You need someone that's gonna help you complete that rep. And so I just felt like for many years as Lora walked through, the different stages of kinda her recovery from cancer. Like, I just needed to be emotional support, spiritual support. You know, what do you need and what do we need to do? You know, I think I, I. I may have shared this with you before, but like we started hitting comedy clubs watching those kind of standup specials on Netflix a little bit more.'cause we felt like we need to be very intentional about keeping the sense of humor, which helps you keep a sense of perspective even when you're in the middle of the dog fight, so to speak.

Ivelisse Page:

Yeah. I love that you're kind of like that lightning rod that, you know, neutralizes what's coming at you. And I think for a cancer patient, that is a lot, especially when they enter into the conventional appointments. And I think that's one thing that I could say that Jimmy did as well. He was that lightning rod that kept me focused on God's capabilities. Right. And not the challenge that was in front of me and his possibilities of how I can be well and would be well. So thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And, you know, as we coming to a close on our time, you know, if someone finishes your book and wants to take that next step in growing in their faith, what would you recommend them to do?

Mark Batterson:

Wow, that's a big question. And you know, I think that, like anything else, A faith journey is a journey. It kind of begins with a first step. But then there's no finish line. Like you never arrive. So I think it's continuing to have this posture of growth, a posture of faith and, and then along the way, I think you have to enjoy the journey. And some of us, you know, we're, we fall into the win then trap. Like, when I get my driver's license or when I go to college, when I graduate from college, when I get a job, when I get a promotion, when I get married, when we have kids, when our kids are out of the house, when I'm retired then life will be good. No, you gotta enjoy the journey right here, right now. And part of that is just for me, living in a place of just dependence upon God. In him, we live and move and have our being. And so we, we wish that the Lord's Prayer was give us this month, our monthly bread even better give us this year our yearly bread, but it really is give us this day, our daily bread. And so I think a lot of it is just kind of this one day at a time as mercies are new every morning and kinda living in that daily dependence upon God and, and if we do that God's pretty good at getting us where he wants us to go.

Ivelisse Page:

I love that. Thank you, Mark. We're also gonna put a link to National Community Church, so if anyone is listening, you know, there Mark's sermons are recorded from their church and you can watch from home even if you're not in the DC area. So we'll make sure to put that link. And I also wanna just mention that if anyone that is listening to this and would like some prayer that would like to believe in a miracle. Please contact us at Believe Big. You know our advocates and are there for you to pray for you and just, you can email us at info@believebig.org or you can call us at(888) 317-5850 and we would love to pray for that miracle for you. So thank you Mark so much for joining us. Thank you for writing this book and all the books that you write to encourage us and you're such a blessing to us and to so many. So thank you. Ah,

Mark Batterson:

well Ivelisse, thank you. And it really is a joy for Lora and I to be a part of the Believe Big family and just I hope that those who are listening today just feel seen, heard and loved that. I wanna tell you today, there, there's a God who collects our tears in his bottle. Your name is tattooed on the palm of his hand, and, he genuinely cares for you, loves you. I hope you sense that and know that as we have this conversation, a joy to be with you and look forward to the next one.

Ivelisse Page:

Yes, thank you so much.

Mark Batterson:

Thank you.

Autumn Burns:

This podcast episode is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Gary L. Zipper Charitable Giving Fund.

Ivelisse Page:

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