Tonight at work I almost missed a cool lesson that God
was trying to teach me through the strangest of circumstances. So basically
here’s how it all went down.
I clocked into work at 7 pm and cracked open my textbook.
As I began to read the content, with an extreme amount of focus, I retained all
of the information, during the quietest shift of my life and got a 100% on my
exam. The End.
Jk.
In a perfect world, that’s how things would’ve gone but
sometimes life is rough and I’m not perfect therefore God has a lot to teach
me. So here’s what really went down.
I arrived at work at 6:55 pm. I was so on time! But the computer was on the
struggle bus so I sat there for about 20 minutes until I could clock in. All
was well, it was quiet, too quiet… Then all of a sudden, a knock. I go to the
door to let in a lone baseball camper. I sit back down at the desk when all of
a sudden, “tap tap… tap tap tap.” I let in a handful of baseball campers. I sit
back down when all of a sudden “Pow pow pow!” I let in a stampede of baseball
campers.
For the next 3 hours this quiet night turned into a
mixture of lost keys, a distribution of ping pong paddles, and listening to the
“symphony” of screaming campers playing ping pong about 15 feet from me. What
was happening!
At about 10 o’clock I sat there in utter confusion just
thinking to myself how can these boys have so much energy? I wondered how can
they possibly have the stamina or desire to continue playing ping pong for 3
hours straight? Then it hit me. God is extremely purposeful with every word he
has placed in the Bible. I thought specifically of the phrase “child-like”
faith.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:15
I’ve always thought of this as referring
to having the innocence of a child in order to fully understand the Gospel. But
what if that’s not all it was referring to? Yes children approach life with
innocence, but they also approach life with an insane amount of energy. As I sat
there watching these children play ping pong for 3 hours straight, and by the
end, saw them acting like it was just as fun and exciting 3 hours later as when
they first started all I could think was, “What if this was the way I
approached following Christ?” What if 3 years after becoming a Christian I
approached every word God spoke to me and every moment spent with Him like it
was just as exciting as the moment I accepted Him into my life? What if 3 years
later, I had the same exact energy as I did that day I emerged from Wescott
fountain drenched and shaking from a declaration stating that “I have found
hope and He is Jesus!” What if…
Tonight I am grateful that God is not
only Father, Deliverer, Restorer, Creater, Protector… but that He is Teacher.
I’m thankful that God loves me uniquely and personally, and that He would
change my plans and meet me at a reception desk in Tallahassee through the
screams of children. But above all, I am thankful for the screams that came from
another child, in a manger, thousands of nights before this one. And I’m
thankful that scream brought life, and from that life, hope. A hope to which I,
and billions of others, now live!
It’s funny how sometimes we can be so
aware, but in such the wrong ways. “Do you have eyes but fail to
see, and ears but fail to hear?” (Mark 8:18)
What
seems to fleshly ears as inharmonious clanging is quite actually heaven
screaming songs of hope.
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