Thinking inside the Box!

As my son was growing up; I watched a considerable amount of SpongeBob SquarePants with him.   If you’ve never seen this cartoon, it’s actually somewhat entertaining. It’s about life underwater centered on this sponge dude, named Sponge Bob. In this one episode, SpongeBob ordered a brand new TV Set, one of the really big ones too.  When the TV finally arrived, SpongeBob and Patrick wanted the box, not the TV itself. They saw more fun in playing with the box then with the big TV itself.

Kids love boxes like this. They can make them into anything they desire: a fort, a castle, a ship, and a house, or whatever. And they don’t care what was in the box to begin with. They don’t care how expensive the gift was that was inside. They just like the box.

Some Christian’s look at life like SpongeBob and children look at a box. They see only the box itself – they see only their circumstances of their life. And they enjoy their box; they enjoy their circumstances in life… as long as everything goes fine. BUT if something happens to the box… they’re none too happy.

Have you ever had to throw this box away? How did your kids respond? I bet their response was like my son’s…almost biblical. He was weeping, wailing and gnashing his teeth!!!  When Christians feel the box of their life is being torn apart how do they respond? With weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth! They cry and they mourn and they struggle because they’ve haven’t understood what really gave the box its value.

The box my son played with had value because of what was inside as does our lives in Christ has value. Not because of our fragile exteriors but because what’s contained inside. Pagans doubt God because they lack the good things inside the box. They don’t have the Holy Spirit within, there box is empty. We all pretty much know what it feels like to be empty, don’t we.

When we Christians experience doubt it’s often because we forgot that God was in the box to begin with. He was there all the time! He was in the box and outside the box and everywhere around. If we become selfish; rely upon our knowledge; forget to put God first; and try to handle our own circumstance our boxes can seem empty. Even then, there not…we just think they are.

In Mark 6:3—44 Jesus feeds the thousands. This is a great “In the Box” teaching!

 Mark 6:36 But he answered, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?"

All 5 thousand ate though without handing over the wages. Jesus was trying to get the disciples to look in the box and not at the circumstances. Jesus was trying to show them they could do all things, thru Him, there strength and there provider. He wanted them to stop looking at the outside of the box.

Every Christian has to go thru that experience. At some point in our lives God has taken us to the box and ask:

What’s In Here? Is God in your box? Or is it empty?

Thinking outside the box has its important aspects too. I am writing this to make sure that before you start thinking outside the box… make sure your box isn’t empty!