Bubbles or Plastic?

Hello everyone! I know it’s been some time since I’ve posted. Our family has been traveling for a few weeks and now we’re settling back home!

Let’s dive right into the final, and possibly strangest, of the three signs Samuel gives to Saul as Saul is wavering to believe he’s to be the next king of God’s people.

“After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.” 1 Samuel 10:5-6 (ESV)

Out of all the signs, this one had to have been life changing for Saul.

The other two signs were events he just needed to wait and watch happen in front of him. For this one, he was going to be involved.

God was showing Saul not only does He know all and has control of all circumstances around him, but He has the power and will to work within him.

There’s a big difference between believing that God is in control and seeing for yourself that God can work within you.

I remember the first time I brought my one-year-old Ace outside to blow bubbles. He was amazed! He squealed with little-kid glee and reached his tiny hands up in curiosity while I dipped and blew through the plastic bubble wand.

It wasn’t long before he wanted to try it himself.

But, when he tried to replicate what he thought I was doing, it didn’t work.

He would hold the wand too close to his mouth. Or wouldn’t blow with just the right amount of strength in the perfect direction to make bubbles form.

So, I went over to him and held the wand with my own hand over his little determined grasp.

We dipped the wand into the bubble solution together, gently pulled it out, and I’d say “Ok, 1, 2, 3 BLOW!”

We’d blow together and bubbles would fly into the air!

Was it his efforts that made the bubbles? No, it was mine. My breath alone made anything happen. But he got to be a part of it!

And he loved it.

Soon enough, whenever we’d go outside and he wanted to make some bubbles, he would bring the container to me.

He knew he needed me for there to be bubbles.

But then, one day he grabbed the container out of my hands once I unscrewed the cap. He didn’t want me to “help” him. He pulled out the wand, accidentally spilling the solution all over the patio, and blew at the plastic wand with all his might.

Of course, it didn’t work. There were no bubbles.

I expected that he had learned he couldn’t do it on his own and would come back over to me for help again.

But that’s not what happened.

Instead, he dropped the container, and held the plastic bubble wand in his sticky hands.

At first, he started whipping it around in frustration.

But then, his whole mindset changed.

He became content with playing with a sticky piece of plastic.

I was sitting right there waiting for him to just come over and ask for help so he could enjoy the bubbles I so easily could make for him.

But he never did.

And even when I called over to him to come and I’ll help him make bubbles…he was too occupied with the piece of plastic. He had forgotten what the wand was actually made for, and settled on being content with just holding a piece of plastic now rendered useless for its purpose now that it was in his little hands alone.

This is the picture that came to mind when I read Saul’s third sign from God. It was as if God was giving Saul just a taste of the life he could live and enjoy if he allowed himself to be in God’s Hands to be used.

A sign that he’d know would never be possible without God working within him.

Saul knew better than anyone that he would fail as a leader on his own. He was not capable of successfully living in God’s calling for him by his own power and might.

John 15 comes to mind where Jesus says,

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5 (ESV)

This is just as true in 1 Samuel as it is today.

We weren’t meant to strive in life on our own. Not one of us is capable of living out God’s plans and calling for our lives in our own strength and power.

That’s the beautiful point.

We were made to live life with God, through Christ.

God doesn’t just create us filled with potential and then watch how long it takes us to completely fail from the sideline.

He is a loving Father who not only longs to walk in intimate relationship with us, but sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us.

Does that sound like a God content to be pushed on the sidelines and called to when things go wrong?

Not at all.

But, sometimes we treat Him as if that’s His role in our lives.

Sometimes we slip into living life as ridiculous as a one-year-old being content with a sticky piece of plastic over going to get help to use it for the much greater purpose that it has!

If our criteria for ever walking into something God’s asked of us is how capable and confident we feel we are of doing what He wants us to do- we will never step into where He wants us. Because we are never going to be capable in our own strength and power to do the things God has for us to do.

Saul needed to move from simply believing God exists to knowing He can move within him. This sign showed him that God was not calling him into something that He was not also able to equip and empower him to do, as long as he gave himself over to Him.

And He does the same for us.

Most of the time, God’s not going to call us into things that we can do on our own strength and power and wit. This can be scary to walk into, and it’s much more natural for us to gravitate toward what we feel capable of doing, and away from what we don’t.

But, if we stop and we’re honest, don’t we all long for life to be deeper than what we’re capable of on our own?

Don’t we long for less sticky pieces of plastic in our own hands, and to see more bubbles?

Stepping out into the path God calls us on will give us opportunities to lean on Him like we’ve never had to before.

It’ll call us to run to Him and get to join in what He’s doing instead of trying to exhaustively force something on our own that was never meant to happen out of our strength alone.

We’ll experience and see God move within our lives and reach out to those around us in ways we know we never could do on our own.

Have you been spending your days shaking a piece of plastic in the air when it could be so much more if we would just put it into God’s Hands?

My prayer this week is that we open our grips and hand over whatever sticky plastic wands we’ve been contently waving around, and place them rightfully in God’s Hands to see what He can do within us.

From one of His children to another,

Christi