“Man I feel bad for those Christian who keep God in a box. They are missing out on so much. Like being able to have peace while waiting for God’s promises to come true,” were my exact thoughts whenever we would talk about letting God out of the box in youth group. I was really focused on the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye, but ignoring the plank in my own eye. This trip I feel like God held up a mirror to me and helped pull out the plank, which opened up my eyes. However, I didn’t really realize this until I was shown this picture.
As I’m sitting on the patio my friend came up to me and they were super excited about the amazing picture of the mountain they took. They said, “I even got the palm tree in the picture!”, which I thought was really cool. But after they walked away, I started to look out at the mountains from where I was sitting. As I looked out I saw the palm tree and the mountains, but then I saw that there was a pole separating them. And I just think “How in the world did he take this picture?” So, I sit there for awhile thinking of different angles that he could’ve taken the picture from and after not being able to figure this out, I give up.
I forget all about this until a couple days later when I was sitting in the hammock in the corner of the patio. I was looking out at the scenery and it hits me. There is a perfect view of both the palm tree to the left and the mountains to the right. Then I start thinking about how this is like God.
God shows us something amazing that we can have. But then we put him back in the box and try and figure things out from where we are. We try all day to figure out how to make his promises come true, but we can’t because we’re not in the right place to receive his promises. So, we give up and go in a different path. But if we just took Him out of the box and gave Him more control, He’ll give us hope so we don’t give up. He’ll lead us to the hammock so, we can receive his promise. Then, instead of worrying about how we can make this happen we’ll get to sit and enjoy the beautiful scenery of God’s plan.
And I started thinking about all the ways I do this in my life, but also how this trip has changed that. Like when I fasted for 2 days before this trip. Everytime I was hungry I would drink water and think “I can do this.” Or everytime I would feel tempted I would drink water and fill myself making me less hungry. Or even everytime I was out of energy I would drink water and tell myself I could make it through, because I would use my energy and then be able to go home and rest. But when I fasted for 3 days in Haiti, everytime I was hungry I would pray. Everytime I felt temptation I would pray and ask for strength. Everytime I felt out of enegry I would pray of my body and for strength.
That’s just one of the many ways I was able to take God out of the box I put Him in, and find rest in him. I just thank God for this trip and having that picture to piece things together. I pray I can keep unpacking the box I put Him, because it must have been really uncomfortable for Him to be in that small space for such a long time.
