Moving out of the box

istockphoto.com

Today has been one of trying to start preparing for this Sunday and also at the same time trying to start planning for Lent and Easter. I have never been one accused of being a multi-tasker but I try. Of course when I try to do so much it seems that I am inundated with phone calls asking for information or having to find out from others information. Sometimes I can get so distracted that I find it hard to get back to what I was working on in the first or maybe second place. Actually if I am honest, that fits in so well with my personality type. I am a great starter but I have to work to be a great finisher.

This is what got me thinking about the need that I have to move out of the box. I need to at times stretch myself creatively. Otherwise, I feel stale and spiritually dry. In bible study last night, we were talking about the passage in Ezekiel of the valley of dry bones. I was thinking that when I feel my creativeness becoming stale that is exactly a description of myself, dried up. I need at that time to find time to open myself up to the breath of God. Then I am able to feel alive once again. I need to move out of the box that I create for myself.

It is interesting to think about what we tend to box up. At a meeting at the Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, there was a short play about trying to box God up. "Ronco God in a box. For just $19.95, we can send you God in a box. We guarantee that God in the box will meet your every need. Hurry and we can offer for just the shipping and handling Jesus on a cross." I have a picture of Jesus in a box that I used as a sermon illustration. It is not only ourselves that we tend to box up but also our expectations of Jesus and God. As long as God does what I want, that is ok. But the minute that I have to do something hold the horses.

Jesus constantly thought and moved out of the box of traditions and expectations. He did things that constantly pushed the limits of religious orthodoxy. He ate with sinners, he healed on the Sabbath, he performed miracles, he touched the untouchable, he treated women with dignity and equality, and he spoke of a Truth greater than any of us. When I feel uncertain or tired, I remember what Jesus did for me. In that remembering, the breath of God comes to me and I can move out of the box I find myself in. I pray that is true for you as well.