God’s Glass Elevator

Remember the glass elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? In the end when Charlie wins the grandprize, Willy Wonka pushes the button and the elevator bursts through the factory roof, zooming through the air. What an unexpected, wild and wonderful freedom explosion! We may have ideas about how God is and how He might communicate with us, but, like that crazy glass elevator, I believe God, and our relationship with Him, can be much cooler than we could ever imagine… He breaks through all constructions or “boxes” we may try to fit Him in. Sometimes His Ways make no sense, but hey, we are finite in knowledge and He is Infinite in Wisdom.

This reminds me of the first Back to the Future movie. In the end Doc shows up in the DeLorean, tells Marty to get in the car, and Marty questions if there is enough road to reach the necessary zap-into-the-future speed. The Doc looks at Marty and smugly says: Roads? We don’t need roads. The car suddenly lifts into the air and starts racing ahead, no longer bound by the ground, catching the right speed to blast into the future. (Re-live that 25 second 80’s moment here.) So where is all this going?

Many times you hear things about God, Jesus, the church, how things should be, how you should be, what you need to do to hear God, how you should address Him, formulas, traditions, routines, etc… We are thinking like Marty: there needs to be X amount of road at Y miles an hour to ignite the time travel sequence.

Granted, some beautiful things can come from routines and surely there are heaps of good intentions going around, but I believe God is not bound by any formula. His Presence is not limited to someone being “good” or the amount of times they may have fasted. He can speak directly, through His Word or a visual impression, through nature, a child, a TV show, an incident at the store, through a (non-Christian) song or even a (non-believing) neighbor (…call me heretical, but I’ve experienced all that personally and was as shocked as you may be). God can use anything to reach you and when you are looking for Him with all your heart, you will find Him.

But the question is, are we open to that? Or do we only want Him in a Sunday church service?

We can cry out for revelation and sing about our willingness to listen, but what if He comes in a way we do not expect, or speaks through a vessel we did not approve? He is a fan of using foolish things to confound the wise, and weak things to confound the strong…

God is the Original Rebel.

I heard many sermons about God speaking in a “still small voice” which He can, especially when we consider things like faint impressions on our heart. But don’t forget about Job. God spoke out of a Whirlwind to him. Nothing still or small about that. So friends, please don’t set limits on God. He doesn’t want to set limits on you. As King David said “…where can I go from Your Spirit, where can I flee from Your Presence…?” God desires to hear from you whenever with as many or few words as you have. Don’t feel you are not good enough, not spiritual enough, not enough. He loves us like crazy and somehow, despite all of our failings, He actually wants to hang out with us.

He enjoys your company. You are God’s treasure. What happens if you make Him yours?

Are you ready to burst through the roof..?!
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit…”(John 3:8).