I went to Sprouts Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago. It was all a normal trip, and nothing happened out of the ordinary…until I went to exit and approached the automatic sliding doors. They didn’t open. I didn’t think much about it initially. I just accepted the fact that they were having mechanical difficulties on this day, and so I gently pried the doors open, exited, and went on my merry way.
As I drove off in my car, I thought about those doors again. I wasn’t frustrated, but I recalled that this was actually the second time this week that automatic sliding doors didn’t open as they should. Though both times I wasn’t making haste enough to run into the doors, I wondered who would have. I couldn’t shake the thought of how many of us trust mechanical doors to open, almost to a fault. I thought of how many of us walk into elevators, confidently expecting them to open and close, take us up and down and on to our designated floors. I thought about how many of us trust creations far more than we trust our faithful Creator.
It is too often that we rely solely on what is seen, when the power of our unseen God is insurmountable. Though His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, and not always making sense to our finite human minds (Isaiah 55:8), He can be trusted more than anyone or anything! Hallelujah! Be Encouraged! Unlike unreliable doors, God has no difficulty in coming through for us. He does not malfunction, He does not slip up, and gratefully He never takes a day off. Hallelujah again! Thanks to Jesus we can approach God with faith and confidence. And when we walk thoughtlessly through automatic sliding doors that open with ease, may we be reminded of how similarly, if not more, our trust should be in the God who made them.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.
– Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
Last week, the Lord humbled me with the truth that I had been serving a spirit of mammon. Me? Really? Yea, really. The truth was a hard pill to swallow. I had to crucify my pride before I could ask for it, and I had to truly desire to know it. Knowing it isn’t enough. I then had to accept it and choose who I was going to serve. I was heart-broken and I chose God, and was humbled again by the truth that He had already chosen me. I’m sharing this because I know there has to be someone else out there who was like me. There has to be someone else out there who needs to crucify their pride, ask God the hard questions and turn after learning the truth. That’s what real Christians do. Real Christians are about Christ, not about themselves.
If you ask me, it’s a brilliantly inappropriate formula that works as long as the numbers don’t increase. But, Kingdom business is booming, and something’s gotta change. Times like these make me happy. They are those sweet and sour crooked path being made straight types of moments, and I’m all about it! I’m noticing that there are suddenly more mouths to feed, and I am but one chef cooking in the kitchen. There are suddenly more sheep to tend and I’m just a little ol’ sheep myself. Kingdom business is booming, and something’s gotta change.
Many of my friends, like myself, are probably used to my level of availability. Their level of support and maturity vary, but regardless, it comes down to me. I’ve been the kind, single friend with a different type of busyness that truthfully, I haven’t respected much. I’ve had a willingness to be there and set myself aside. Sometimes it’s a labor of love, which is great and necessary, but mostly it’s been a neglectful puppet act that displeases the Lord, and myself. It’s been an unhealthy form of bondage, like all forms of bondage are…unhealthy. My puppet strings are showing, and I can’t do it anymore.
