Einstein and the Bible
Jonathan has a desk drawer that has been stuck closed for about 6 months. It’s the top drawer, so there’s no easy way to get it unstuck. Andy and I have tried many times with no luck. I was doing my “mommy clean” cleaning of their rooms last Friday, though, and I wanted it fixed. I am sometimes a bit of a perfectionist, and I didn’t feel that the room was truly clean unless I got the drawer open and cleaned it out, too. The only way to try to get it to budge was to take the middle drawer out and stick my arm/hand up the back and down into the drawer. So that is what I did for about 40 minutes straight.
I read once that Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Let’s just say I was more than a little insane that day! After the 40 minutes failed to produce any results, a thought came to me. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…” So I prayed. I asked God to help me get the drawer open. No, the drawer didn’t instantly pop open or anything. But God DID help. He gave me the wisdom to see, through the crack, just what I needed to push on with a ruler from the back of the drawer. Once I pushed enough, the 2” binder that my son jammed into the top fell enough and the drawer opened.
I’ve been happy many times in my life. But I sat there on Jonathan’s floor crying like an idiot with happiness that day. And the thought came to me: that was the first time we had asked God to help us with that stupid drawer! Oh, but you can guarantee that I had told my best friend about it on the phone. That and every other little/big thing going on in my life. But I never bothered to tell God.
When I read John 15:1-17 it got me thinking about that drawer fiasco. Verse 15 is what stood out the most. “I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father has told me.” Jesus wanted me to see him as a friend. I realized that I wasn’t. Oh, sure, I saw him as master, Lord of my life, etc., but friend? Not so much. I still acted like a servant. And, let’s face it, a servant doesn’t confide in his master anymore than a master does in his servant. But when I treat Jesus as a friend, a best friend, then there is nothing that I won’t tell him. And as I spend time in that friendship, then I become more like him. I bear fruit. I believe in a stuck drawer being opened and it is.
Which isn’t to say that I always get it right. It didn’t take long for God to prune me to produce more fruit. I look at the pruning as the next difficult situation God allows us to go through. In this case, it was allowing me to catch a virus that I’m STILL recovering from. I’m sorry to say that I think I failed this one. I really didn’t give it to God and ask him for strength. I got cranky and yelled at my kids. (And I was getting better at that!) And I can tell you, I wasn’t happy! Thankfully, God doesn’t cut us off the vine completely for one stupid choice.
Thank you, Di, for assigning that reading in John. It reminded me of where my focus should be, and whom I should turn to. So, even though I’m still feeling miserable, I cracked open my bible today and spent some time with my real best friend. And maybe, just maybe, the next time God prunes, I will respond with a branch overflowing with fruit.
There is more I could say about this week’s assignment, but I think I’ve already hogged the reading time. If no one else bothers to post, Rhonda and Di, I will add some more! :)
I read once that Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Let’s just say I was more than a little insane that day! After the 40 minutes failed to produce any results, a thought came to me. “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…” So I prayed. I asked God to help me get the drawer open. No, the drawer didn’t instantly pop open or anything. But God DID help. He gave me the wisdom to see, through the crack, just what I needed to push on with a ruler from the back of the drawer. Once I pushed enough, the 2” binder that my son jammed into the top fell enough and the drawer opened.
I’ve been happy many times in my life. But I sat there on Jonathan’s floor crying like an idiot with happiness that day. And the thought came to me: that was the first time we had asked God to help us with that stupid drawer! Oh, but you can guarantee that I had told my best friend about it on the phone. That and every other little/big thing going on in my life. But I never bothered to tell God.
When I read John 15:1-17 it got me thinking about that drawer fiasco. Verse 15 is what stood out the most. “I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father has told me.” Jesus wanted me to see him as a friend. I realized that I wasn’t. Oh, sure, I saw him as master, Lord of my life, etc., but friend? Not so much. I still acted like a servant. And, let’s face it, a servant doesn’t confide in his master anymore than a master does in his servant. But when I treat Jesus as a friend, a best friend, then there is nothing that I won’t tell him. And as I spend time in that friendship, then I become more like him. I bear fruit. I believe in a stuck drawer being opened and it is.
Which isn’t to say that I always get it right. It didn’t take long for God to prune me to produce more fruit. I look at the pruning as the next difficult situation God allows us to go through. In this case, it was allowing me to catch a virus that I’m STILL recovering from. I’m sorry to say that I think I failed this one. I really didn’t give it to God and ask him for strength. I got cranky and yelled at my kids. (And I was getting better at that!) And I can tell you, I wasn’t happy! Thankfully, God doesn’t cut us off the vine completely for one stupid choice.
Thank you, Di, for assigning that reading in John. It reminded me of where my focus should be, and whom I should turn to. So, even though I’m still feeling miserable, I cracked open my bible today and spent some time with my real best friend. And maybe, just maybe, the next time God prunes, I will respond with a branch overflowing with fruit.
There is more I could say about this week’s assignment, but I think I’ve already hogged the reading time. If no one else bothers to post, Rhonda and Di, I will add some more! :)
posted by Sonya Day | 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
So, that totally spoke to me this morning. In more ways than one. IT is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that God wants to hear about stuff like that. There are people starving and hurting, does he have time for my insignificant complaints. Good Job!!! The only way to build a true "friendship" is to share everything!!!
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