Need Help With Your Straw?

Lunchtime at the preschool is quite a festive event. As a teacher, before we eat, we go around and help all of the kids open up their lunches. Some need a zip-lock bag opened, some need a top taken off of their plastic container, while others need their straw poked into their drink. With our kids filling up two tables, I choose one to sit at and help that table with the "opening duties."



One day, I had gone around the table and sat down to eat, concluding that everyone had their "stuff" opened. I was sitting by one of the girls in my class and I noticed that her liquid yogurt hadn't been opened. I naturally reached for her straw to poke it through the foil on top. Not surprisingly she wanted to poke it in herself. So I sat and watched her, waiting for her to ask for my help. I knew it was only a matter of time. She poked at the top with the straw creating a little hole, but not one big enough to fit the straw in. She continued to poke and poke, and no matter how hard she did so, she couldn't get the straw in. I continued to watch and wait. Finally she asked me to get the straw in for her and I poked it in with minimal effort. While these events took place before me, I began to grasp something that I knew God was teaching me.



As one can imagine, God teaches me a lot through these little ones. Though I knew that I could help the little girl in my class get the straw in her drink, she didn't want me to. She denied my help at first because she wanted to do it her way. So I sat and watched with a smile, just waiting for her to ask for my help. She struggled until she was tired of doing so, and then asked me to do it for her. Then, the goal was accomplished.



Though I as a teacher am a poor comparison to the all mighty God, I couldn't help but see that God was teaching me about how we, as His children, relate to Him sometimes. We acknowledge that He is our head, but when it comes to a decision to make or a step to take or even in our daily ministries, we do not let Him help. Of course He does way more than help, He is our source of power (Colossians 1:10-12). I couldn't help but think to myself, "Man, sometimes I do not even acknowledge God and accept His help (that is always available) because I want to do things my way. I struggle and struggle, and finally I realize that I cannot do it on my own. I turn to Him and ask for help: "wham!" The straw is in my drink. I can only imagine that God is sitting there waiting for us to ask Him for help. He is letting us struggle to show us that we need Him. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).



Of course help only means "help." It does not mean that what we want to happen will happen. God may help us out of what we think we want. I speak in generalities because only you know what you are going through. What I do think God wants us to realize is that we are infinitely in need of help, and He is our Helper.



"...because God has said, ' Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. ' So we say with confidence, ' The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?' " - Hebrews 13:5b-6



"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. " - Romans 8:26

Don't Stumble Into the Snare

"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe." Proverbs 29:25


I am daily tempted to fear man. Of course when I say "man" I mean humankind. Fear is not simply being afraid that he or she is going to physically harm us. I daily face fears that what humans say or think about me is more true than what God says about me. Many times, I face a contrast between the two. It is when I begin to fear humans and their thoughts of me that my joy begins to waver. My focus has gone from trusting in God to the fear that what humans say or think about me will be my end. But when the Father draws my gaze back to Himself, I find that the "rocks" hurled (accidentally or intentionally) at me by humans sting for a minute, but quickly fall to the ground. Here are some of my fears:

- that I will be found out; found to be second-rate when I seem to be a winner

- that others are more spiritual than me

- that if I am not perfect then I will lose that which I care about

- relational fears that turn into jealousy and performance anxiety

- that others are simply "better" than me

...all of these are rooted in lies. I have gone from trusting what God says about me in His Word (like Psalm 139:13-16) and turned to fearing man's evaluation of me.

Have you lately found yourself in a "valley" because of what a human says or thinks or has done to you? Measure what they have thrown your way against God's Word, and trust God. Let's start trusting God and leaving the fear of man behind us.

Jesus, help us with Your power to trust You and to overcome our fear of man.

When Pain Opened My Eyes to Love

My soul cried out to God in anguish. I had never felt this way before. My investment in this girl had gone beyond God's boundaries, and now I was reaping what I had sown. She closed the door to me and said no more. God was ripping an idol out of my life and it hurt; no, it was agonizing. I cried and yelled until around four in the morning. Then I went home; I couldn't sleep. I went to the coffee shop early in the morning. As I was walking back to my car the pain filled my eyes with tears and I sat down in front of my car. I was exhausted; the tears felt good. I dialed my mom and recounted for her the night of pain. God was there. Then, O what love, my parents got in the car and drove to spend the day with me. The beginning of healing. Days down the road, I called my mom very early in the morning and she gladly got out of bed and listened to my lamenting. O what a love. Through all of the pain God finally opened my eyes to something. I saw the amazing and sacrificial love of my parents, finally realizing that God loves me (and all of His saints) infinitely more than my parents (or their parents) ever will. My parents are bound by their human nature. Their love only goes so far. God's love has no bounds. O what a love! He shows me infinite mercy, infinite love, infinite compassion and understanding. He offers infinite help, infinite truth, and He never leaves...

"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."
- Galatians 4:6-7

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
- Romans 8:35, 39