Crockpot Jesus

Do you ever get the feeling that God is a procrastinator? Have you ever wished His timing was less like a crockpot and more like a microwave? In our “want it now” culture we have come to expect instant results and quick solutions.

 

I used to struggle with wanting to know what I should do or how things would end up. This anxiety and impatience was especially strong when life felt hard or I was suffering. I would cry out to God desperately wanting to know what He was cooking up in my life. I didn’t really care how He preferred to cook it, in a microwave or a crockpot; I just really wanted a taste. I wanted to know what the plan was so I could just do what He wanted me to. But He was procrastinating…

 

I don’t know about you but I hate it when my kids ask me what’s for dinner. When they come into the kitchen and lift the lid to the crockpot and they catch a glimpse before it is ready, I brace myself. I know it will be followed by complaining about what they just saw and dreading what’s to come. Funny thing is when the time comes to sit down to dinner they are always ready and hungry and often desire more.

 

I began to wonder if that is what God thought when I would try to skip the process and ask Him to just give me a taste. I wanted to lift the lid just for a peek trying to turn crockpot Jesus into the latest microwave version. But I was not ready to taste and see what was coming. I would say to Him, “Here I am, take all of me, use me Lord, I’m waiting,” but the whole time I was saying that I was not trusting Him to know when He was done preparing the meal He had for me.

 

I found myself really wrestling with where God wanted me. I even tried to read Job and realized I had a problem for sure. I wasn’t even patient enough to read what God told him. I found myself wanting to skip ahead and find out what happened. What formula did Job use to fix what he was going through? Job was definitely getting the crockpot version of God and I was determined to microwave his story to get a solution to my problem.

 

But, when we wait we get hungry. When we wait we become ready for what God has for us, and we desire more of Him. One day it hit me. I realized I had to start living in the now and stop worrying about tomorrow. God spoke to me, and the weirdest part was, it came out of my own mouth as I spoke to my youngest child at breakfast. He was four at the time and he was extremely worked up at the fact that his older brother had eaten all of the cereal he wanted. I poured him a bowl of his favorite cereal to have instead, but he continued to whine. And as I spoke to my son I heard God say to me, “Are you going to continue to whine about what you don’t have or come and eat what you do have?”

 

So often we focus on finding a solution, getting results, and figuring out a formula to get what we want. We say we trust God but we live in fear of the cost that what we don’t have is better than what God has already given us. Often what we really fear is the unknown. If God only gives good gifts then how could the cost be bad? If our hands are full of the things we think we must control or are too afraid to let go of we can’t fully receive God’s gift. Our hands need to be empty, our hearts expectant and our crockpot setting left on "serve".

 

“We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” Romans 5:3-5

I cannot take credit for this blog.  It was done by one of my best friends in the states.  As I sat and read this blog I thought that is what I am feeling right now with what are we doing after Meliah graduates.  God hasn’t sent down an email from heaven or a text message to give us a clear indication of what He is up to.  So we are still serving and trusting God to know what He wants from us.  Some days, moments are easier than others.  At times the path seems 20/20 clear that we should do this……  then other moments it is  so foggy we can’t see past that circumstance.  How do people do major life decisions for yourself or for family without God?  We don’t know what tomorrow brings after June of 2014 but we do know that God has all the pieces of the puzzle figured out. And he has flipped over the pieces for us to see when He wants us to see it.   He will let us know in His time, which is always on time.  Even though in our human nature it is very easy to fall into the “I WANT IT NOW”…. But God reminds me that we are a crockpot and we need to wait have our dial set to serve God in all that we do!!!

Thanks Heather for this blog posting.