Recently, I sat in the hospital room with my mom who had been admitted to a local hospital. The next morning after “sleeping” in the reclining chair I noticed in the hospital window a small frame with the directions on how to operate the chair. It had specific directions on how to recline the back of the chair to make it seemingly flat and directions to bring the ottoman part of the chair up to make your legs more comfortable.
I had to laugh a little to myself because well, I have had my fair share of hospital stays with my parents before and have slept in this type of chair, but never have I seen actual directions on how to operate this device. I found it a little humorous because there is a flaw to this design of the chair. Honestly, I am not sure the designer actually tried it out before it was manufactured.
When you follow all the directions to turn this contraption into a cot of some sort there is a problem. A gap forms between the back of the chair and seat of the chair which in my opinion could have been easily fixed with some design planning. It was the perfect size gap for my hip to slid into and be one of the most uncomfortable positions. My mom needed me and she was able to get out of bed before I could get unstuck from the chair. Anyway, I made a video about the chair https://youtu.be/XuwES14VM0Q and really thought nothing else about it and its flaw.
Fast forward a few days, while waiting in the car line to pick up my six year-old I had a thought. Car line is where the last entire thoughts race through my head before mommy mode begins and the last bit of silence remains. The van is often my place of solace in the afternoons in car line and the chair came to mind again.
See, we often times follow all the directions that are laid out for us and try to live life as comfortable as possible. We read our Bibles, go to church or live right trying to be good citizens that follow all the instructions, but still we have a big gap, flaws aplenty. All of this is because we often times get caught up in doing, that we leave God out of the mix and this is where the big gap comes into our lives. There have been many times in my life that I was reading my Bible, playing church in my head, but forgetting that without the relationship with God I had a huge gap in my heart and in my life in general. I have allowed this gap to get me stuck on things that really didn’t matter. This gap has caused me to hold on to pain, guilt, hurt and well forgiveness wasn’t even a thought. God doesn’t want us to just be rule followers, doing works that go through the motions of his word. He wants to dig deep for the flaws in us that are causing gaps in our relationship with Him. Following the written instructions are important, but without having a relationship with God it is all in vain. God sent Jesus because he knew we couldn’t always keep his rules and would lose our direction at times. Jesus is my savior and I can’t even fathom where I would be today without Him. I still don’t always get it correct. Let’s make today the day we allow God to fill the gaps in our lives. God knows we need Him now more than ever.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.” (Romans 5:20-21 MSG)
A Hall of a Day 