For some time it has been pressing on my mind, this image of God being this all powerful genie for us... We rub on the lamp with prayer and He rolls out like a puff of steam, appears, and grants us "these wishes three" and I laugh to myself. I laugh because the very idea is crazy.
But boy do we think that we can trap Him... like an epic whale of a tale where we're all out on the sea to find Moby Dick so we can trap him in a perfume bottle! What do you do with all the extra whale? You might be able to fit a few teeth in the bottle, if the neck of the bottle isn't too thin, but what about the rest??!! Crazy!
God is infinity times as wild and worlds, NO universes, more powerful... but how big is He? Do you know? I love it when we try to measure Him out in doses that we think people can take. "Just a cup of God at a time, you don't want to overwhelm anyone". Or what about the limitations we try to put on Him like, "There's no way that God could be this or do that in my life." "There's no way that God could reach this person or that person." There's no way that God could use this person or put this person at the right place at the right time." These are all limitations that we try to put on Him, but who is really being limited?
If we struggle with the feeling that we aren't gifted enough or we don't have this or that in order to be used by God... wow, what a limitation we are putting on ourselves. God could animate a huge rock, if He chose to, and have it do everything that He has called us to do, but He places even more faith in us than we do in Him.
We show a lack of faith in God when we over calculate, when we frustrate ourselves over the things that God can work out Himself. We show a lack of faith when we convince ourselves that it is our job to jump into someone's soul and turn on a tea-light, or keep them awake during Sunday service. It's like we're trying to reverse roles with God. "Okay, God, you pop out and do something amazing that will touch somebody... oh but we got the rest of this covered. We got a perfect line-up for today's service. Song selections from the Top 10 Contemporary Gospel list... check. The most talented singers or willing participants... check. A moment for silence and reflection, coupled with a really sad and thought-provoking tune... check. Lighting and special effects.... check! And then, when we're ready for you, we'll pull you out of a hat like a rabbit and people will stand up and clap." Who is God? Did we think for a minute that He was us? That the raising and guiding, and encouraging of His warriors was entirely up to us? We are maybe raising and guiding, and encouraging the most highly entertained group of lackadaisical "warriors for some kind of kingdom" but I digress.
I was thinking about how 90% of most congregations in most church bodies are inactive (and that's an estimation, but you tell me what you think) and we would absolutely go deaf, dumb, and bald by stressing about how to get (not just some butts in some seats) but some really powerful people for the Kingdom of God. The best of our abilities is great, but where our abilities may lack, we have to trust that God is not only picking up the slack, but He orchestrated the whole event. We were placed in the right place, with the right message, with some of the right people in those seats (maybe not everyone was awake) but God is in every hiccup too.
Sure, we can pray that a baby won't interrupt the service with insane crying or that a cell phone won't ring and upset the crowd... but distractions are something to expect. We cannot plan for every hiccup, they kinda just jump in and distract and somebody might choose to spend the rest of the service focusing on how the lighting or the music or the video or the singer with the low v-neck blouse was rudely offensive... but we kid ourselves if we think for one moment that the opinions of the inactive, low-interest level (unless it's to find fault with something and dwell on it for the entire service or longer) crowd are the catalysts in the chemical equation.
God is the Catalyst. He cannot be changed. We can change our approach, we can change our focus, we can change our mission statements, we can change our interests, we can even tune the whole thing out... but God is going to do the same thing every time and that is Change Lives. We cannot do that job. We cannot construct the perfect worship service, worship team, worship video, or prayer to fill all the seats with people who are on fire to LIVE the passion. Worrying about time limits, attention deficits, distractions, technique to the degree that it "tries" to limit God, only limits ourselves and is a horrible testimony to others of the extent of our actual faith.
We cannot box God in. We can maybe put up a lightning rod and direct some of the electricity to go in certain directions, but I guarantee you that His electricity, His power, His spirit is everywhere and in every thing. In the quest to perfect ourselves... we are making our testimony of faith flawed.
God is not a genie in a bottle or a contortionist in a box, and if we try to force Him into these places, we'll find that we never really had Him at all. Go ahead and try it... put Him in a box and then peek inside and tell me... "ISN'T THE BOX EMPTY?"
