Just Add Water

Busy, busy, busy!  That is my motto.  I am someone who is bored easily and so the more I have in my hands to do, the better I feel.  Psychologically speaking, I am a ‘chaos-surfer.’  I feel more comfortable organizing chaos than I do once it’s actually organized.  Go figure. So, busy is my norm.  But lately, I have felt even more busy than usual, and that is saying something, because looking from the outside, my schedule is the least demanding that it has ever been….well, sort of.

During this particular time in my life I feel like I am the embodiment of irony.  In the season where I have the least amount of natural-realm activities going on, I feel the busiest I have ever been.  How does that work?  I have a part-time job, I go to school online, and I volunteer during the day for my church, but spiritually, I feel like a balloon being blown up into full size.  I am sure I will burst at each wave of incoming helium, but I never do, I just keep getting more stretched.

In this state, it’s easy to complain.  Honestly, when it’s something I’m so well versed in, it’s hard not to do.  Everything seems like a big deal…everything!  Every issue is bigger than the last and it’s the ‘end of the world’ every time.  (Side thought: what a coincidence that I should be going through this season in 2012, the year of Mayan doom...Anyway) I was practicing my complaining skills to the Lord.  He let me go on and on until I ran out of things to complain about.  But before I unload the revelation He laid on me, let me give you a little background info:

The Lord has been adding to me in a big way over the past few months, which is partially why I feel stretched.  Of course, that is the sort of season I am in: going to a Christian school, volunteering more at church, and taking part in two Bible studies.  I feel so full of the Word, I could burst!  But recently I had a particular school assignment that hit me right between the eyes and left me challenged in a whole new way.  The subject matter? Faith.

I have (probably just like you) been schooled on the subject of faith relentlessly since the time of my salvation.  With good cause, as faith is a very important part of the Bible and the backbone of this country’s most recent revival.  But all of that to say, I was less than hopeful that there was very much more I could be taught on this topic.  Boy, was I wrong!  As I was turning through the pages of this extensive book I was assigned, I was getting gut-checked left and right by phrases like “you will act on what you truly believe,” and “you can only resist Satan as much as you’re in the Word.”  My heart started getting convicted in these areas.  I really started to (and still am) take a look at what my actions say that I believe.  I know a lot of things, but do I agree with them on a soulical level as head knowledge, or are they revelatory truths that are part of who I am on a spiritual level?  And I am sad to report, that a lot of what I ‘believe’ is fortified in my head only.  That’s scary because, you see, when you reason something out in your thought life, you are bringing God into your ‘box.’  God doesn’t fit in your box.  He’s so much bigger than that, and caging Him, only keeps you from knowing who God really is.

As I began to see that this is the state of my current life, I realized something else.  All of this stretching and busyness is nothing more than simple preparation.  The Lord is trying to get through to me to make things better for me.  I feel like the current word over my life is ‘get into the Word of God.’ It seems to come out in everything I write, every time I sit down with the Lord, it’s everywhere!

So, back to present day.  After I had exhausted myself, giving all of the reasons why I shouldn’t have to put up with this or that, the Lord spoke to me very gently.  He told me, ‘just add water.’  You might be thinking, ‘huh?!’, but I knew exactly what the Lord was saying.  Water is a symbol, commonly used in the Bible, for the Word of God.  I knew the Lord was telling me to add more of the Word.  I also knew what the implication of ‘just adding water’ is growth.  We’ve all seen the ChiaPet ® commercials on TV, where they give you a clay figurine with everything inside of it that you need to grow a ridiculous looking, completely cheesy, but oddly healthy plant.  All you have to do is add water.

The Lord was showing me that in this season where I feel stretched, it’s because I’m growing.  Sometimes our reaction to growing pains are to stop what we are doing or take a rest, when really God is trying to ‘grow’ us into something healthy.  You see, He has put all of the things inside of us that we need for what we are called to do, because we have the Spirit inside of us.  We are all-inclusive that way and when we add the Word, we automatically get growth.  Growth isn’t easy, by any stretch of the imagination.  I makes you do things you’ve never done before, and believe for things you don’t know that you have inside of you.  It takes faith to do this.  It takes tons and tons of faith, but the more we learn to trust the Lord with what He has for us, the more we will grow into what we were created for.  The hardest parts of our lives are the greatest chances for growth we can have, and by saturating your situation with the Word of God and His ultimate truth, you will begin to see your circumstances as opportunities, I promise.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a ‘green thumb.’  There is no way to ‘over water’ with the Word of God.  In fact, the more you pour on, the better.  If you’re in a similar situation, let the Lord take you and stretch you beyond what you thought you could handle because He can see your end from your beginning.  He knows you better than you know yourself.  He is the one that put all of that ‘stuff’ inside you when He formed you in your mother’s womb. So keep your head up, keep your faith in the Lord, and keep soaking up the Word, and watch to see what you ‘grow into,’ and who knows, you may sprout into something you never even imagined you could be!