There is a bed in my office. That is not a metaphorical statement, nor is it a comment on my laziness; rather, I am making the observation that currently, where my chairs usually are, I have a cot set up for people to sleep on. This is because we are hosting families in our basement this week through the program Family Promise and the overnight hosts get to sleep in my office (what a prize). This got me thinking about how God interacts with us.
I have often thought of our deepest connection to God coming when the stars aligned and everything made sense. I always imagined that if God wanted us to know Him, it would be through otherworldly displays of perfection and goodness. However, if I think through my life and the times I have grown in affection for Him, they have been through discomfort. Not always pain, but always something that I would not have done if I were in charge. What forces me to think outside of my own plan and direction is God placing something in my path that makes me pause. Not that the good times don’t give me a sense of God, but without something to make me stop for a second, I tend to think that the good is a result of me or just how life is.
Which brings me back to the bed in my office. It is quite unhelpful to me in the process of doing my job. I have had to schedule things other places, hide away sensitive info, and put up with the general nuisance of having to walk sideways around the chairs that had to be moved for the bed to fit. But this discomfort reminds of how God is faithful. This bed reminds me that I have a bed at home (and a home). The bed reminds me that God’s goodness to me extends well beyond the bed and the home to the people I have who would support me if everything fell apart. Most of all, I am reminded that God’s concrete faithfulness is a reflection of His complete control of all things. This bed helps make God real to me.
As I look around at my daily interactions, I begin to see that much of my life, and many of my frustrations, are God pushing the pause button. Breaking into my life to shock me out of apathy. I am thankful for the concrete ways that God ‘disciplines’ me, because I know without them I would never approach Him. I hope that I can grow in experiencing life in this way…because I am still a little annoyed that there is a bed in my office.