Room Full of Boxes

“From the ends of the earth I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you are my refuge.” (Psalm 61:2-3; NLT/NIV)

When life gets overwhelming, I like to use my “Room Full of Boxes” analogy. I came up with this analogy during a particularly difficult move. I got all of my things moved into my new home and unpacked the essentials, then left most of my stuff in boxes in the spare room and closed the door. Every time I opened the door and saw all the boxes, I felt overwhelmed. For months, my response was to close the door and pretend the room did not exist.

Finally, one day, I summoned my courage, breathed a prayer, opened the door and pulled out one box. After that, one box at a time, I finished unpacking.

Life is a room full of boxes. At any given time, I have boxes to unpack. They may be work boxes, family boxes, financial boxes, relationship boxes... When I get stressed and feel like I’m in a situation where several decisions need to be made at once, I want to close the door. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start, I don’t want to do it, so I’ll just ignore it.

The problem is that closing the door to the room full of boxes doesn’t make the boxes go away. Neither does ignoring or delaying addressing issues that present themselves in my life. The more I resist, the harder it becomes, the more overwhelmed I feel.

It can be crippling.

So how do I combat the room full of boxes? The first thing I do is acknowledge it. Acknowledging the situation(s) making me feel overwhelmed takes away some their power. The second thing I do, when I stop being stubborn and willful, is to give it to God. “God, I feel overwhelmed. Here is my situation. I feel a little lost and like I don’t know where to start. Please calm my soul and show me the way.” Then I open the door and ask God to help me see one box at a time.

It is freeing.

“Do you not know or have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” (Isaiah 40:28-29; NAB/NLT)

If you find you are battling a room full of boxes today, feeling overwhelmed, lost and like you don’t know where to start, invite God to the doorway. As you stand together in front of the closed door, tell God about the room. Tell him about the boxes and what’s in them, then tell him about your heart and where your mind is. Take a few moments of quiet to feel him as he smiles at you and places his hands on you, reassuring you. Then, with his loving care surrounding you, take a deep breath, open the door, and reach for the first box.

My prayer today is that I invite God to my room full of boxes, trusting that he alone can show me where to start, trusting that he can help me unpack my boxes, trusting that he can give me strength to finish unpacking. God you are good and the source of all things good. I give my room full of boxes and my weary, burdened heart to you. Thank you for your endless mercy and grace, and your patience with me when I choose to be stubborn in following your lead.

Amen! =D

Not What, but Why?

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10)

Tall orders stand before me this Lenten season. But as I step out in faith, I understand that both the sacrifices and the supplements I feel called toward this Lent focus on three key elements:

Obedience. Discipline. Relationship.

Obedience is following that which God set before me as a major dietary change. Lent is a great time to start a new nutrition regimen, however all the new restrictions require a fair amount of research and learning on my end. Had I paid attention when I first received the instruction in January, my research could be done and I could be prepared. But I am human, stubborn and willful, and I not only ignored God's word on the matter, I also openly rebelled against it. So Lent, as a penitential season, provides good opportunity to turn, ask for forgiveness, say yes, and ask for strength to carry out the instructions now.

Discipline is not only sticking to the dietary regimen, but also making the necessary changes in my schedule to make and keep a commitment to reviving Little Meditations during Lent. I admit I've not given God the best of one-on-one time lately. I talked a fair amount about it; I spoke to things I could do to change it, but again, I am stubborn and willful, busy in my little human life, stopping to thank God and say a prayer here and there, but not taking good time to sit with him in quiet or to spend more time than the pre-sleep routine in meditation on his word. Lent is a great time to add back the pause and reflection offered by writing Little Meditations. Discipline is required in order to fulfill this commitment.

Relationship. Stepping into obedience of something into which God called me and disciplining myself in a way which results in more quiet & reflective time in prayer and study both move me closer to God. Every time I say yes, every time I am still, I move closer to God. God so desperately wants us to have real, personal, individual relationships with him. God does so much for me daily. The least I can do is work on my end of that bargain. The least I can do is modify my behavior to say, "You are important and I want you in my life. I will say yes to you and I will make time to be still." The least I can do is pay God more than lip service when I say, "Your will, not mine, be done."

Ouch. That last sentence kind of stings. But this is Lent. And Lent is a season intended for self-reflection and spiritual cleansing as I prepare for the death and resurrection of the One who sets me free. Free from the bondage of self1, free from the petty tyrannies of others2, free from the confines of this world3.

As we begin this Lenten season together, my question for you is not "What are you doing for Lent," but "Why are you doing it?"

May God's glorious strength be with you through this time and may you find his light shining through your commitment to him.

Amen! =D




1-Matthew 10:39; John 10:10
2-Romans 14
3-John 18:36

God is With Me

 

Image Source: Amanda Geisinger

Joshua 1:5b, 9b

“In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you.  I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength!  Courage!  Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged.  God, your God, is with you every step you take.” (MSG)

God is with me.  This has been my mantra for a couple of days.  And it’s good to get a reminder that God won’t give up on me.

Looking over the last few entries I wrote as well as verses coming out of my devotionals, I can make no mistake that the events that took place over the last few days were all a part of the plan.  God knows far better than I do what needs to happen and what I need to go through in order to see where I really am with him in this new life.  It is no coincidence that I just wrote about how I have to know what I am not in order to know what I am.

God will never give me more than I can handle (1 Cor. 10:13), but sometimes I have to push myself to the limit.  I may not always be the biggest fan of the growth experiences God lines up for me.  The last few have been so intense that I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to come out unscathed.  Each rattled me in ways that were new and unfamiliar.

But the intensity was necessary to teach me vital lessons.  And I have no doubt the teaching is not over and that I have many more of these trials through which I will go.  God isn’t finished with me yet (Philippians 1:6), but he has great plans for me (Jer. 29:11) which were planned out before I even lived one day (Psalm 139:16).  Who am I to question it?  God knows what’s going on and that’s all that matters.  I need to trust him. 

All of this in its own gnarled way has increased my awareness of God in my life.  God knows he needs to rock me to my core to make things stick where I am in life right now.  In time, he may not have to pack such a powerful punch, but while I’m still shedding my old skin, he knows he has to bowl me over to get my attention. 

As I continue growing into this new God life, I pray that he knocks me over as many times as he needs to for me to get the message.  I also pray that I never forget what it means to be broken, even if that means God has to continue to allow me to break now and then. 

God is with me – he always has been and he always will be.

Amen!  :D

Look, It Was Your Idea

Exodus 33:12-15

I love this little gem in the story of Moses.  Moses is fed up, frustrated – he was given a job he didn’t want to do, asked to lead an ungrateful group of people with selective hearing, and constantly has to fight for them with the one who asked him to lead them!  Just after the incident with the golden calf, God tells Moses he isn’t coming with them on their journey because he’s over the Israelites’ behavior.  He even says, “I couldn’t stand being with you for even a moment – I’d destroy you.” Exodus 33:5 (MSG) 

So Moses, at the end of his rope, not only calls God out on the irony, he gives him an ultimatum.  He says, “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people.’ ... Don’t forget this is your people, your responsibility.”   God says, okay, “My presence will go with you.” 

“If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call off this trip right now.”  Ex 33:13-15 (MSG)

So my boss has this great idea, gets me in on it with him, has me round up a bunch of people he know will be difficult to deal with, gets me into the middle of a project, gets tired of dealing with the people and tries to send me off on my own to finish the project with them, saying: 

“I’ll be with you in spirit...” 

“Like hell you will!  Your butt will be with me here and now and through the rest of it or else call off the whole thing.  I didn’t get into it on my own and I’m not doing it without you in the lead because this whole thing was your idea!”

I love it!  I love it because it makes God so tangible, which seldom happens  in the Old Testament.  He’s so often this large, raging, cloud, burning bush, wrathful, “Okay, fine, I won’t kill you this time,” God, that to see him in this conversation with Moses puts him on a relatable human level.  Moses is out in the hot sun with the Israelites, doing the hard work, and God just left Starbucks, coffee in hand, pulling out the keys to his BMW, trying to get off the phone with Moses, “My presence will go with you...”

How often I have felt like Moses: God, if you don’t take the lead here, then just call the whole thing off!  I have a vague idea of what I’m supposed to be doing, and I know God’s presence is here with me, but I’d really rather he take the lead and just give me clear instruction on what I am to do and where I am to go. 

But God wants me to do the better part of the work on my own.  Not because he thinks he’s better than me and would rather be cruising around in his BMW, but because he has entrusted me with a task he knows I can accomplish, even if I can’t see that I am capable of it.  He will not leave me high and dry, and as much as I love picturing God glibly saying, “I’ll be with you in spirit,” leaving me to fend for myself, the fact is that he never leaves me.  He really is with me in spirit – always has been, always will be.

So when I next catch myself feeling like Moses in the desert, wanting to throw my phone down and stomp on it in anger because I know God’s got a nice cold iced coffee in his air-conditioned BMW, I will try to remember that God’s not blowing me off.  He’s simply doing what he does, nudging me out of the nest so I can fly on my own.  He’ll never give me more than I can handle (1 Cor. 10:13), and he knows better than I do what I can handle.  He knows when he needs to make the drive out to the desert and bring me some water.

Amen!  :D

"My presence will be with you."

(Photo by Bauer Griffin)

Holy Spirit, Come on Down!

1 Corinthians 2:6-13

“No eye has seen or heard anything like this,

Never so much as imagined anything quite like it –

What God has arranged for those who love him.” 

1 Cor 2:9

This verse goes hand-in-hand with another popular verse:

“I know what I’m doing, I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG)

When I daily ask God to open my heart so that I may receive his Spirit, he gives me his peace and joy, letting me know that he is right here with me, and promising that, no matter how things may look now, he’s got great plans for me.  But in no other way than inviting the Holy Spirit into my life can I possibly fulfill God’s will and see those plans.  I can’t do it on my own.  But God gives me his spirit and:

“The life-giving Spirit brings wisdom and understanding, gives direction and builds strength, instills knowledge and fear of God.” Isaiah 11:2-3 (MSG)

That same Spirit, “not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along.”  1 Cor 2:10  That same Spirit dives into the depths of God, dives into the depths of me, and brings out the glory and the light and the love – guides me with wisdom and understanding, and strengthens me in God – if only I will ask for it!

 How awesome is that??!

I may have been baptized in the Holy Spirit years ago, but it is my job to continue asking that the Spirit stay with me.  It is all too easy to give in to the world around me, making my heart an inhospitable place for the Spirit to live.

So, Holy Spirit, I most solemnly ask that you dare to dive from the depths of God right into the depths of my soul, penetrating my core, that very first part of me which God formed, and pull those things which God has planned for me to the surface one-by-one, that I may live in his joy and peace all the days of my life.

Amen!  :D