Life Unscripted

Are these not the most amazing things ever?! You fill these little pens with water and it slowly comes out the tip and you can draw. With water. On magic paper that’s not even paper. It’s magical. The aqua doodle. Insert applause here for the ingenious mind who created this literally mess free imagination tool.

Kendyl likes to fill the pen up herself. Big girl points. Who cares if there’s water all over the floor. So up to the sink she goes. I noticed this time though she just ran water over the tip of the pen. I watched her write a little with it and it dried out quickly. I tried to explain to her that if she took the tip off and filled it with water, the pen would write better and would last much longer.

It’s kind of how our expectations flow in life. We come to church Sunday morning and expect the pastor to fill us up spiritually so we have enough to get us through the week. Oh, but don’t take long. And dismiss us by 12 noon so we can beat everybody else to Olive Garden. And try to make sure not to step on our toes. It’ll mess up our new pedicures. Give our youth everything they need to make it through the battlefield of middle and high school in an hour on Wednesdays. But don’t hold them past 8pm. They have to hit the sack early so we can go to the lake first thing in the morning.

Have we become satisfied with this life we’re living? I think we’ve forgotten we’re just passing through. There is so much more to this life than what we’re living. 1 Chronicles 29:15 says, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.” Yet we are held in bondage by so many earthly things. Things that will sift through our fingers like sand falling to the ground.

I think sometimes we get bored with church – GASP! Did she really say that?! Yes. We get bored with church. We try scratching our noses to cover our yawns. We update our Facebook statuses and Twitter claiming we’re checking in and tweeting sermon points, when in really we’re trying to push boredom away. Why? Because we haven’t gotten it. It hasn’t clicked yet. We don’t have a clue. What, you ask? That God really is the Creator of the Universe and the same one who pursues us and wants to woo us into a personal relationship with Him and not just some guy with a clipboard checking off our attendance to our Sunday morning ritual.

We get bored because we haven’t come to the realization that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). We haven’t had our epiphany moment and discovered the meaning of the words of Ephesians 3:19-21. “And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

He can do so much more in our lives and through our lives but we try to put limits on Him. We think, “Oh that’s awesome that God did that for them! It’s just not for me.” We want a quick fix and want to just get the tip of the aqua doodle pen wet, but God wants us to be overflowing. He wants to take the cap off, fill us with His living water, and watch the most amazing story come to life. When we do it our way, we burn out quickly and aren’t much use to anyone. But when we humble ourselves at His feet and allow Him to live and move and breathe in us, we can be warriors for Christ. We can speak to that mountain in front of us and watch it throw itself into the sea. Our mustard seed faith that seems puny at best reaches the heart of God and make the impossible possible.

I don’t know about you, but I want to live in the overflow! I want to dive out to meet Him in the deep. I want to drown myself in His grace, favor, strength, mercy and love until the old me isn’t visible anymore. The more we see Him, the smaller our problems become. The closer we are to Him, the less we think of ourselves. He is our strong tower, our provider, our rock, our portion.. Lamentations 3:24, “I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”‘

So I ask you – where do you find yourself? Are you satisfied with where you are? Or do you want more? Do you crave to know Him more intimately? I want to be like Paul when he penned these powerful words in Philippians 3:10-11. “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” This was a man who understood. He caught a glimpse of the glory of God and held on with everything he had because he knew his life depended on it.

Don’t sit there and be satisfied with just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more to be discovered! Dive in and experience all that He has for you. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Live life unscripted,
❤ Brittany