This is a new day and dynamic for all of us. We as a world are experiencing something that very few of us if any have ever experienced before. However, in all this chaos and confusion, God is still present. Truth be told, He never went anywhere, we did. As a country, over time, we have distanced ourselves from God. We did so by taking Him out of our schools and by removing Him from pre-game preparations. We did so by taking Him out of our personal decision making and out of our consideration of others who may not necessarily look, or act, like us. Probably most importantly, we did so when we put Him in our box.
At work, we are in the time of year where we must go through items and files that we no longer need and discard them. We have come to realize that after the items have been discarded, we have a lot of empty folders and other reusable supplies that need to be put back in their proper storage place. My supervisor did most of the work of going through file cabinets and throwing stuff away. I was given the task to take all the boxes of reusable supplies and put them back in the supply room. It was a very simple task … I thought. I began to try and fit each box of supplies on shelves that were already filled with other items, realizing that the boxes of supplies would not fit. What do I do? I have a lot of supplies that can’t be left to block the walkways of the supply room.
A voice said to me, “just take the stuff out of the box.” I said, “huh, it’s a lot of stuff.” The voice then said, “it won’t take you that long. It’s just a small inconvenience and it will make your task a hold lot easier and simpler. What did I do? I took the stuff out of the box. I then found that what was so difficult to put into place, started to fit very nicely with room left over to spare.
God is telling each of us in this most desperate time, that if we can learn to take Him out of our box, He can be so much more available to us in our lives. He can fit things into our lives that He never could have before from inside our box. Our box can be so bulky and rigid that there is no room for the flexibility of God’s amazing grace and power to be made active in our lives. We tell God that He can only bless us, if He blesses us a certain way. He can only heal us if He heals us a certain way. He can only grow us if He grows us a certain way.
Paul wrote to his son in the ministry, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 1:18-19. He told Timothy, “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”
This is a time where we as believers cannot afford to lose faith. We must remember that God is bigger than any issue or pandemic that we could ever experience. How the church responds, is how the world will respond. All eyes are on us. God has called each of us to be responsible, loving and caring towards one another. He has called us to be faithful and not fearful. In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells us not to worry and to trust that He will care for us. He tells us to pay close attention to the birds and the lilies. He feeds one to fulfillment and clothes the other in beauty.
So, although it might be a little of an inconvenience to do so, take God out of your box. Keep your faith in tact so that we are not like those who would suffer a shipwreck in regard to our faith.
Be blessed everyone and stay safe. Genesis 31:49, … May the Lord watch between you and me while we are absent one from the other.
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