In Acts chapter 16 we read about Paul and Silas getting beat, placed in stocks and locked in a jail cell. Many of you are familiar with this passage. As you may know, while Paul and Silas were in the jail they were praying and singing hymns. Paul and Silas were in the prison praying and singing hymns rather than being irate. Paul and Silas praised in the midst of the storm.
This story invites me to place myself in the story. What if I were Paul or Silas? Could I praise God in jail after being beat for no good reason? Could I, as Casting Crowns sings, "Praise you in this storm?"
I hope I could.
But then a printer doesn't work.
Thursday at work the printer went haywire. It wouldn't print anything. I did everything I knew how to do and it still wouldn't print! At 5:15 in the morning with a deadline approaching this is the last thing I could handle. I needed that information to print so Mark and I could on the air with information to share. I was irate, but I figured out a way to make things work without that printer working.
But after the printer incident my whole day was thrown off. Everything bugged me. I came home from work tense and stressed.
I hope I could praise God in a jail cell, yet I couldn't praise Him when a printer didn't work. How silly is that?! What on earth makes me believe I could rise to the occasion in tragedy when a printer ruined my day?
If I want an Acts 16 moment I need to be able to have a Thursday morning moment. I need to be able to perform in the "little" things before I graduate to "bigger" things or I'll fail miserably. If I can't practice trust with a printer, can I trust in the midst of death and disease or incarceration
Don't be discouraged. Rather, I want you to grow from my little story. We must be faithful, obedient, joyful lovers of Jesus in the "little" things before we start boasting about how we could be faithful, obedient and joyful in the "big" things.
Be aware of occasions to grow up in Christ through the "little" things today.
I definitely failed at a "little" thing yesterday evening. I was traveling to Wisconsin to speak at a conference. It took forever, because of the snow, and then when I got close it took me a heck-of-a-long-time to find. I was so frustrated, and I was even grumpy into the morning. But the Spirit will grow me in peace, I trust that, and pray I have the strength to work with Him in that.
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