Devotional: Safety Warnings

This post is a devotional I gave at a PCGS staff devotion during the 2015-16 school year

Safety warnings. They are everywhere and on everything. From the annoying, but useful, beeping of a truck backing up, to the “danger: electrical shock” to the “warning: contains peanuts” on the outside of a peanuts package, we are constantly surrounded by reminders and people set up to provide protection and safety.  Unfortunately, having safety rules and regulations does not always mean that a person’s life will be problem free.

Thinking back to three jobs I had growing up, that statement is definitely true. My first real job was cleaning up in a meat department. With lots of sharp equipment, safety is of high importance, and if one is not paying attention, a slice to the finger can easily happen. Unfortunately, this is something by which have first hand experience with. As I was wiping off the meat slicer, my finger got too close and very easily, the slicer did its job. Thankfully, my boss was close by and had some gauze and we wrapped it up quickly, easing the pain and worry in my mind.  A second job, and interesting one, was working on a mink farm. Mink do not like being grabbed by the tail or leg, especially when being vaccinated, and they will let you know by not only trying to bite you, but also directing their spray at you. One way to protect yourself was by wearing thick gloves. A glove with holes in it or one that is not very thick, does not offer much protection to the hand inside as the teeth come biting after you. Again….I can speak from experience. My gloves were wearing thin and a bite was easily felt. And again, thankfully, my boss was close by, and after seeing and hearing my reaction to one of these attacks, he gave me his gloves for the rest of the day. His act allowed me to keep going with less worry. A third job was working at a furniture store. On deliveries, it is critical that before you leave to make sure the taller items are tied up securely in the back of the truck. I realized the importance of this my first summer. When we opened up the back of the truck at our stop to deliver some pieces of furniture, the 5 drawer chest I “tied” up an hour beforehand had been playing a nice little game of pinball in the back of the truck the whole trip. Needless to say, it was in no shape to be given to someone. My boss, who was with me, took it in stride and let the customer know that one more piece was still on its way to the store, and it would be delivered next time we came that way. I could tell he was unhappy, but not once did he get upset at me. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time practicing knots when I got back and never made the mistake again.  My boss’ words, actions, and grace shown to me in a time where I thought I would have to pay for the new piece of furniture allowed us to form a great relationship for the next 6 summers.

Although these examples of misfortune in my life are seemingly meaningless and had no long-term ill effects on me, they do provide a great lesson for what happens when life throws curveballs at you or hardships happen. As much as humans can try to be prepared for certain situations by reading up and getting educated on topics, eating healthy, exercising, and living safe, things will happen in life that that will hurt and make us stop in our tracks, they are just out of our hands. Fortunately, all is not lost, and we are not alone in the journey.

So who are the “bosses” that help us get through? For one, they are the people around you. The relationships formed with other people are very important, and set up opportunities for support. This means that you also are the ones who be that hand for others. John Ortberg in his book The Me I Want To Be states that “there the 3 laws of relationships: observation, observation, observation. People who give life to us are people who notice us. They know what we love and fear. When we work to truly notice someone else, love for them grows.” So take notice of others, and give them life. If you know someone who needs help and support to clean up physical, emotional, or spiritual wounds, pray for them, make them a meal, be an ear for them, encourage them, or write a note.

The most helpful “boss” that provides help and comfort is God.  God, as described in Psalm 3, is “a shield around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high…he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie down and sleep, I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.”  Isaiah 43 also gives a reassurance of God providing protection and safety. It does not promise a problem free life, but does promise his care.

When in a time of hardship or when someone you know it, place your/his/her name in the blanks below and know that God is there.

Isaiah 43: 1-3

For Prayer:

Lord, help remind me of the following and that you provide:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed ________

    I have summoned _____ by name; ____ is mine.

When __________ pass through the waters,

    I will be with _______.

and when ________ pass through the rivers,

    the rivers will not sweep over _______.

When __________ walk through the fire,

______ will not be burned;

    the flames will not set _____ ablaze.

For you are the Lord our God,

the Holy One of Israel, our Savior;

Amen.

Crazy Love Chapter 1: Stop Praying

The book I am reading, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, is one I have read a few years ago, but wanted to read it again because I remembered I loved reading it, but have no idea why. That is in part why I started writing this blog. I want to take time to stop and think about what I have read.

Chapter 1: Stop Praying

            Stop Praying. What a great chapter title to start a book on how to grow in a relationship with God, huh? Prayer is something we do every day, most often before every meal as well as in the morning and at night before we go to bed. But sometimes our words are cheap and excessive. We often pray the exact same kind of prayer every mealtime and every day. It is very easy to get stuck in a rut when praying in the sense that you might be saying the words, but not actually focusing on what you are saying or more importantly who you are saying these words to. So before you start praying, we need to step back and first look at who God is and stand in awe of who he is.  

            First, just watch this video and stand in amazement at the creation God has made! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg. There are many videos on YouTube that show an overhead view of a town, zoom out to state, then the USA, earth, solar system, galaxy and then end up showing the many galaxies that are out there. There are billions of galaxies and we sit in one town in one of them. Watching these videos never cease to amaze me, no matter how many times I view it or knowing beforehand that they are going to end up viewing the different galaxies. It is extremely difficult to wrap our brains around a concept that big! Most people are able to comprehend the idea of the sun and different planets because they can be seen. Not to diminish their extravagance by any means considering the sun is 93 million miles away! But trying to grasp the idea of millions and millions of galaxies in the universe nearly gives you a headache! Once you have almost (but not really ever) grasped that concept, you really start to see how small you are. Then take into consideration how many years have been on earth and how many people are currently on earth and your head starts aching even more than it did from before. Going the other direction, look at some of the smaller things in life that are mind-blowing. Did you know that a caterpillar has 228 separate muscles in just its head? Or the fact that a spider is able to make 60 feet of web in one hour? Or that there are 3,000 different species of trees per square mile in the Amazon? These are some crazy number facts and are only 3 pieces of God’s wonderful creation that you could stand in amazement of! You could go on and on calculating how many muscles there are in all of the caterpillars heads on earth, how far a spider could go in a day, or how many kinds of trees there are in the whole world. Or think of all the pieces of your body working together to keep you alive every second without you even having to think about it. Just sit for a minute and stand in awe at some of these things.

Picture of MANY galaxies!

With that as a background, how do we respond to God sometimes prayer? We often pray with words that do not have much depth to them, or we do not acknowledge the beauty and vastness of creation at all because we are distracted by our jobs, electronics, and our different hobbies. We go through our days minding our own business and being concerned with our own problems that we miss out on so many opportunities to give praise and glory to the Creator of all that is around us! We were put on earth to bring praise and glory to God, and with all of creation speaking of his glory, it should not be so hard to do just that. Unfortunately though, it is harder than it should be. There are many things that take our attention away, so it is important to make time to intentionally focus and marvel at God and how amazing he is.

As much as we can take time in our days to focus on God, we will never be able to fully wrap our minds around who he is. This can be a frustrating thought, but in this chapter Chan puts it into perspective when he says

It is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending . . . If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.

The same can be said about trying to wrap our minds around the size of the universe. We just cannot do it, but we can realize God’s glory through it. Chan ends the chapter by looking at two accounts of God seated on his throne. This again is something human words cannot even come close to describing what it actually looks like. Human words cannot fully describe the glory and majesty of the Creator of the universe, but at least they can help us stand in awe of who he is. The accounts in Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6 will cause shivers to run through your body if you really see what they are saying. The Revelation account includes all of the following: a trumpet voice, a throne, someone with the appearance of jasper and ruby, a rainbow that looked like an emerald, 24 other thrones, crowns, white robes, lightning, thunder, lamps blazing, sea of glass, living creatures and the following words:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Wow! This would be quite the sensory overload! And again take into consideration this is being put into human words, which cannot fully grasp who God is.

            So, stop praying for a second and marvel at God and how huge and extravagant he is! Think about all the intricate details he put throughout creation: the butterflies, flowers, snowflakes, and cells in your body. Then think of the vastness of creation: the billions of people on earth, the many planets, the stars, and the millions of galaxies. Give yourself a new perspective to prayer by stopping and recognizing who it is you are praying to. Taking all of this into consideration, prepare yourself to pray to the Creator of all of it who deserves the praise and glory and is seated on his heavenly throne. Start Praying.