Livin' In A Box

Do you put God in a box? I know I'm guilty of it. Having been through multiple job searches over the past several years I have often found myself creating my own limits on what I believe God will do. I have found myself thinking and saying crazy things like, "I won't get that job...it's where I want to be" or "I'll apply for this job but I doubt I'll get it because I never get interviews where I want them."

Is that crazy or what? Here I am, a child of the God of the universe, the One who can do anything and created everything, and I doubt His ability to create something good for me? What's more surprising, that we all create this box for God to work within or that we doubt His love for us, allowing our own self-doubt to overpower a love we can barely comprehend?

I suspect that, truth be told, it's a little of both, but that ultimately the box we create comes from a lack of understanding His love for us. Let me ask you a question to force a bit of introspection. When you fail at something, or run through a period where things don't seem to be going very well, do you lose sight of God's love for you? Before you answer, think about it for a bit. The easy answer is to say that no, you never doubt God's love. The response then must be, "then why do you/we not believe He wants great things for us?" It would also be wise to ask yourself why you don't focus even more on His love when you feel that distance creeping in?

I know this thought process can be a bit off the path a bit, so let's see if I can clarify just a touch with this statement: If I know God loves me and I believe He loves me as a dad loves his child, then even in my limited human understanding I can recognize how powerful that love truly is. The sheer power of my own love for my children is so strong I can't hold it inside. I get very emotional at seemingly small things because I love them so deeply that I feel everything they go through. God's love is even so much more than that for us, I believe, so for me to suggest He doesn't care enough to aid my happiness is selfish and blind, at best.

What happens when I become so inward and lose sight of His obvious love is that I begin to create limits on what I believe God can do. For example, let's say I'm job searching and cannot seem to find the right fit. After several months I begin to doubt everything about my search and where I'll land because I've been stating to God all along that I'll go wherever He wants me to go. Deep down, do I believe it? I do, but even in that willingness to move I'm creating a box for Him to provide because I've resigned myself to a belief that my ideal choice can't possibly be His ideal choice for me.

Ummmm, why? Why would I believe God wouldn't want me to be incredibly happy? Do I not want my own children to be extremely happy? How different is this, then, from His perspective? Let me share a little secret. I've spent 22 of the last 30 months unemployed, constantly believing my life was going to be changed in dramatic ways by moves to unfamiliar locations. In all of this, my consistent affirmation to God was that I would go wherever He wanted and do whatever He wanted. I wanted to serve and that was a sincere desire but I firmly believed my desires had no place in that commitment to Him.

See, never in all those times of searching did I once ask God to place me in the one location I wanted to live more than any other. Not once. So it struck me, as He circumvented my own lack of understanding and gave me a job in exactly the one place I wanted to live more than any other, that I had not understood. I hadn't understood the depth of His love; I hadn't understood that while I was willing to go and do anything for Him, it was OK to state my own preference, especially as it wasn't selfish, though I'm aware He understands my selfish thoughts as well.

Look, there is nothing wrong with asking God the desires of your heart as long as you understand He's not about to grant something counterproductive to His work and what He's accomplishing through you. As a child of God, as one who has said YES to His Son, you have been given many gifts, one of which is the opportunity to serve the One who saved you from nothingness. So do Him a favor; the next time you are worried that your prayers will not be heard because you are concerned they are selfish, examine the reason you feel you are being selfish. Sometimes it's because you don't understand His love for you and sometimes it's because you've created a box you believe God will work within.

Stop living in the box and start living without limits. God loves you deeply enough that you'll never comprehend it on His earth, but that doesn't mean you have to forgo enjoying it while you're here. He wants to show us His love, but so often we don't allow Him to do it fully because we can't comprehend it. The phrase that comes to mind here is "Let go. Let God."

Let's let go and let God and see where that gets us. I have a suspicion it'll be much better than we ever hoped.