God in a box

if you google 'god in a box' - you'll get about as many references as i feel like i've heard in my relatively short Christian walk. lots of them.

so, forgive me if i wasn't too excited when i went to church this weekend with 2 girlfriends i had invited, and my regular pastor wasn't there. after settling in to the disappointment, i was even LESS excited to see the guest guy bring out a box and start talking about. God. in. a. box. at that point, i started thinking about lunch...! of course, i was worried what my guests - both DEEP people spiritually - would think about the 'sermon lite.'

funny thing was, the joke was on me. what i didn't know, but God apparently did, is that i REALLY needed to hear the message.

ya see, i've been riding the life roller coaster a bunch lately. mostly, concerning my job. i have not been super happy for awhile...feels like a long time, but realistically it's been maybe 6 months. i keep finding reasons for it. i'm getting to the 'burn out' age. the economy sucks and it causes clients to suck. i've done it all before, and i'm bored. i hate big meetings. i am just so DISAPPOINTED so much of the time.

i keep fantasizing about options. i keep coming up with solutions. last week, for the first time in 17 years, i actually made a resume! i was sick of it, and going to FIX this, darn it!

ahem. yeah. my good friends, that kind of reaction has a name. it's called 'putting God in a box.' limiting Him to a set of criteria that WE make, that WE plan for, that WE manipulate until it feels good. not realizing that God has a better view than us. He sees a LONG ways off, and He knows. He actually knows the real reason for the disappointment i am feeling in my professional life now. He knows the timeline, and the ending. He understands more than i do about what i want.

and He is not going to stay in the box, and do what i want Him to do to get me outta this mess :)

the guest speaker (a youth director with AG churches in SD, actually a pretty dynamic speaker) used the story of john the baptist to relate things biblically. you know how john was all gung ho to announce that the messiah was on the way? i mean, the guy did not doubt that Jesus was the messiah! he baptised him and saw a dove land on him, for goodness sake!!

um, until he had been in prison for awhile, that is....things looked a little different from that perspective. so different in fact that he started to wonder....he even sent some people to ask Jesus directly - Matthew 11:2 - 'are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'

whoa! that was john the baptist, folks! asking JESUS if He had it right, or if there was some mistake? just because Jesus is not doing what we think, in the manner that makes sense to us, in the timing that we want, we DO TEND to start to think 'huh. maybe i can hurry this up, Lord, you seem to need some help here.'

the message struck a chord with me, i knew God was telling me to let Him out of the box. which for today, i will do, by trusting Him and seeing Him in each day and each thing that comes up, even if it looks like something else :) After all, i am nearsighted, and He is not!

have a good monday!