In my last post, I compared my biggest
fears in life to spiders – tiny, fragile creatures next to God's
giant steel-toed boot. If God is as powerful as the Bible says He is, then He is
able to crush them as easily and as swiftly as a boot crushes a
spider. I am fully convinced that God could handle even a tarantula
of problems without any struggle whatsoever.
But recently, I have found myself
beginning to believe that giant spiders exist – spiders larger than
life, against which God may struggle in His fight. Take my
employment, for example: I'm a Registered Nurse who graduated from
school in 2010, and I've had zero experience since. As I feared, this
makes finding employment rather difficult. So I have begun to doubt that
I will be able to find a nursing job. God is powerful, of course;
but this is a giant spider problem. So if nursing was in the plan, I
had to take action. Knowing I am too tiny to help fight this giant
spider, I looked around for ways to shrink it. First, I lowered my
expectations and started looking around for a
less-enjoyable, less-skilled position. And then, when that didn't work because I found myself still so very
unqualified, I started looking around for ways to make myself appear
more qualified. Now we would have a more manageable, tarantula-sized
problem. These, of
course, are not wholly unnecessary courses of action, but stick with
me and you will see my error.
I
approached God again, this time with a smaller problem. I said, “God,
last time I was here I asked too much from you by asking you to fight
a giant spider, so I totally understand why you didn't come through.
But now, all I want is for you to take care of this tarantula.”
This
is when I was slapped in the face by the Holy Spirit. He got my
attention, and when He was sure I was listening, He said to me, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
Giant
spiders do not exist, either in real life or in metaphorical terms.
There is no spider that could pick me up and carry me off; neither is
there any problem I could ever face that would make my God break a
sweat. With God fighting for me, even I am not too unqualified to
find a nursing job. He may ask me to settle for a less awesome
position or pursue further training, but it will not be because He is
unable to succeed otherwise.
Many
times over the last several months, I have uttered the phrase, “I
don't know whether God will do this, but I know He can.” God's
answer has been, “Do you?” He has challenged me to believe fully
that He can do all things. And I issue this challenge to all of you.
I
don't know what God has in store for me, but whatever it is, it will
not be a second-rate future that He settled upon because the other
futures were impossible to acquire. My God is bigger than everything
– all of it, all at the same time. Whatever your situation, God is
bigger. Whatever your burden, God is stronger. He is bigger than death –
even death of your dearest. He is bigger than illness – even
incurable cancer and AIDS. He is bigger than divorce. He is bigger
than same-sex attraction. He is bigger than unemployment. He created
this entire massive universe, after all. Your plight cannot overwhelm
Him - He can squash it like a bug.
This
does not mean He certainly will. But don't for one second stop asking
Him to help you – and don't let the deceiver convince you that He
can't.
“Therefore
I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am
content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and
calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:9-10).
Today, I am content with my under-qualification, and I will not stop
setting my sights ever higher. Lord, make me ever weaker,
so that when I succeed, the world will know I did not do it on my
own.
