Oh, wait…
I guess I’m the one who moved…
Several months ago, I went with Jodi to go pick up Italian for dinner with the kids. While Jodi went inside to get the food, I was just talking with the kids and Savannah started asking where my house was… and where we were… and finally she commented that, from the square in Covington, we were “so far away that she couldn’t see my house anymore”. Then she continued on to say that we were “so far away that she couldn’t even see Jesus in her heart!” A bit surprised by her comment and rather amused, I added “but, you can still feel Him in your heart” to which she replied “Nu-ugh – He’s on the inside!!”
Cute and innocent at the time, but I’ve thought of that conversation quite a bit since then and how profound and relatable that simple statement really was. It's quite true that the Holy Spirit can seem SO elusive in our tangible world. And how many times do we feel like we have just gotten so far off track, that we could never possibly find our way back? Or how many times, when lives get busy or we just get lazy, neglectful or find ourselves in a monotonous routine, do we feel like God has somehow slipped away from our grasp? But, just as the saying goes: When you feel distant from God, one of you has moved… and it’s not Him. He’s always with us… whether we acknowledge or sense it at all. As my new bible study reaffirms by pointing out in Acts 17:27 “…the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him – though He is not far from any one of us.”
I don’t know how many of you know this about me, but I love to put things together. Little odd projects like building displays at work and such. And the other day, as I was screwing the shelves into a new corner piece we got, I found myself thinking of the screws I was using. With it being 4 screws to each shelf (2 to each side) they really had to line up right, or it just wasn’t going to work. Now, I learned quite some time ago, that you must place your screws loosely, making sure they all line up, before tightening them up into place. If you tighten the first ones, none of the others will match up. This proved to be quite true in this particular piece and with its tiny pin-prick holes and pliable frame, it was especially trying to get those buggers to line up right. And as I was trying to get the fourth screw lined up on the middle shelf, missing the hole just by the slightest hair and getting frustrated that it wouldn’t cooperate with me… I thought of God. How similarly He must feel when trying to use us to build something for His Kingdom… I don’t know how many of you are project-builders such as myself, but when you continue to work with a screw that is not lined up right, it tends to spin in place, not getting anywhere and eventually pushes either the Screwdriver or the entire project away. Often times, God want to use us to build something greater than ourselves, but if we aren’t lined up with His will, we’ll find that we just spin our wheels where we are, and ultimately push away either His will for us, or even Him. That's why it's important to keep in touch with Him to know where we should be. And I think it’s also important not to forget about the other screws as well. Remember that we are all in this together. And we must be flexible and patient with one another, not jumping ahead of or pulling away from the others. It serves us all better to work together for the greater good. Who knows what might result when you’re in the hands of the Master Carpenter!
