Boxes

I have been casually reading “Sensitivity of the Spirit” by R.T. Kendall. Today a sentence jumped out at me that caused me to stop and think a minute.

Through the years, I have learned that God is often found where we have no intention of looking.

He had just told the story of how his wife was healed of an ailment through someone he thought was kind of weird. He didn’t expect God to move in that way through that person. He goes on to say:

God has a way of bringing all our options down to one – the last option we wanted! It is part of God’s sense of humor!

It made me think of the ways I was excluding God in my life. As much as I fight it, I still have the tendency to put God in a box – a framework that I try to understand Him. Father is much more vast than that. If I want to experience His fullness, then I need to let Him be who He is and not who I want or need Him to be. I need to allow myself to be comfortable outside of my box.

Recently, I’ve been visiting the homeland. I’m not comfortable there. It smells of dead orthodoxy. I’ve long past feeling resentment like a young teen for the first time realizing his parents are not perfect. I appreciate the orthodoxy that I cut my teeth on – it has made me who I am and has given me a love for the Word. It was my incubator of faith. The point being, God is constantly re-relating me to Himself, myself, and my past as I grow in Him. The key is being sensitive to His Spirit; that is, being open to Him.