Trinity and Humanity

While attending a leadership meeting, taking things out of my backpack, one of my pastor friends noticed my stuff and exclaimed “Inspector Gadget!” I laughed right along with him – proud and guilty as charged! Something similar happened just this past week as I drove a friend to a conference. Pulling out and setting up my iPod, GPS, iPad (GPS plan B!) Bluetooth, phone (phablet and GPS plan C!), and all the accompanying cords and chargers my friend exclaims “Techno Pastor!” I laughed heartily with him as he named and exclaimed me appropriately! Apparently this “gadgety” look follows me everywhere because at a dance this past weekend, as I simply pulled out my phone, a friend of mine exclaims “Pastor Gadget!” All that is enough to make the point that I not only like my gadgets, I actually use them………..and “wuv dem, vewwy, vewwy MUCH!” Haha!

So, imagine my sadness on Superbowl Sunday (after my Ravens victory), when I couldn’t find my favorite Bluetooth and put it back in its special compartment that night! Grrrrrrrr… Where was it??? Slightly frustrated at that late hour of 2am (when I naturally become a “whiney baby”), I decided to be mature and go to sleep. “I’ll find it in the morning after I am rested!” No such luck! Grrrrrr...”Oh,where is my “favowit” Bluetooth?!”  “Tim, get a hold of yourself, it is just a little Bluetooth and you have another…and another!” “I know but I want my ‘favowit’ one! Waaaaiillllll!! I don’t wanna use last years model – I want THAT one! Wah-wah-wah-boo-hoo!” After looking everywhere, even reaching out to those who had attended our Superbowl Party to see if it “accidentally” got placed into one of their bags before leaving our home (you know, one of those potentially thieving “friends” who probably liked it as much as me when they saw it! Hmmpf!), I finally KNEW where it was…and it grieved me to no end!

You see, before the Superbowl Game, I had gone to get snacks at the local Giant store. As I left the store I distinctly heard something hit the ground. I looked around, briefly, but didn’t see anything. I proceeded home and all was well – till I couldn’t find my Bluetooth at 2am! Thinking back, I thought, “I must have dropped it in the parking lot and failed to see it! Oh, no! I better rush over there NOW and see if it is still there – or shattered!” I rushed to that part of the parking lot where I remembered dropping something but, again, no luck. Plus, now all kinds of cars were there and surely it had gotten smashed (“Lord, can’t I at least see the remaining pieces of that tiny thing and pay last respects at the burial?! Pleeeeeease?!” Bawl….). Not a piece anywhere! “I know! It’s in the lost and found of the store, turned in by another wonderful gadget loving person!” Nope!!! Triple Grrrrr…

Heading home, defeated, I resigned………to buy another one just like it, RIGHT AWAY, the NEXT DAY! Ha!

It wasn’t to be! For some reason I felt convicted (while researching the Internet for another one) to quiet down, enjoy my “old, rotten Bluetooth’s representing last year’s model”, and to remember the complex financial challenges that had recently sprung up on our family over the past few weeks. That sobered me up right quick! I decided to let that tiny gadget go and trust Father for the more important things. I also decided to become quite “ungadgety” and just get quiet. No TV. No iPod. No CD’s. No radio. No nothin’! Just me, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Funny thing happened in that silence! As I prepared to go out on a quiet drive, I heard a “Whisper” – “Have you looked under your bed? Look under your bed!” There was such a certainty about the prodding I didn’t hesitate. Falling to my knees and lifting up the bed sheets I looked to the right. Nothing. Then I looked to the left and – Walla! Right in front of me my small, beautiful, darling, “favowit” Bluetooth! Yay!

It was a real come to Jesus moment! I KNEW Who had directed me and answered my prayer in that silence! Our relational God! No doubt! Talk about a “Holy Ghost” dance! It was on, as I SHOUTED “Thank You Abba Father! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Holy Spirit! HaHaHaHa! Go Jesus, Go Jesus!” I honestly had something akin to “butterflies”! After settling down from the shout came quiet and another “Whisper”. This time “She” said something like “If I care about you and your small Bluetooth, then surely I care about your bigger issues, too, right?! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your Bluetooth AND the “big” stuff like your finances, okay?!” Butterflies again!

Don’t you know that within one week of speaking to me in that way, one of those huge financial issues was solved in a creative and surprising way by this Relational God in and as Stunning Grace?!

My reason for sharing this encounter I had with the Father, Son and Spirit is to remind you that He doesn’t love you, me, or us, despite and apart from our weird idiosyncrasies, but in and through them (and you KNOW you’ve got some too! Ha!) He REALLY Loves, Likes, and addresses us, YOU, as Love, right in the middle of them! He is FREE, as Grace Himself, to meet and address us, YOU, personally, any and everywhere – and does! Period! As my friend Paul Young, author of “The Shack” says repeatedly “If anything matters, everything matters!” In my weirdness, gadgets matter (or at least are fun!….teehee…)

And, just as God the Trinity whispered His Love and Assurance to me in a small thing, perhaps, through me, He is whispering to you now (maybe even SHOUTING), “(Your Name), it is my privilege to meet you anywhere, even in the small seemingly insignificant things of your everyday life, as Love and Stunning Grace! So, no more worrying for you cause I’ll handle the “small” stuff like your _______________ and the “big” stuff like your ___________, okay?!” 🙂