God-in-the-box

There’s a saying, “Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Usually this refers to our families and the general frustrations of getting along with each others’ quirks and idiosyncrasies, but it also refers to our relationship with God.

I was at worship with a number of my sisters in Christ recently and the leader started talking about boxes. Isn’t it strange how insistently we try to put God into some kind of box, as if we could contain God? One thought led to another and I got this image of a toddler playing with a jack-in -the-box.

Often, the container in which we try to contain God is like a child’s toy for us to play with. The handle is like our prayer life, and we crank it and some sweet music plays, and suddenly, “Pop!” Out comes a little clown, a delightful diversion to our ordinary life.

We’re thrilled with this appearance for a little while, but then we put the little clown — representing God, though God is not a clown (not usually, anyhow) — back in the box to repeat the process. We do the same thing over and over and no real progress is made, no growth happens, no new results are produced.

I have to admit that it’s nice to revisit a fun time in my spiritual life. I’m talking about those times when I’ve hit a deep spiritual well and am overwhelmed by God’s goodness and grace; remembering them can carry me through many a dry spell in faith. This is important for everyone because everyone has dry spells in faith.

Another side of that God-in-the-box is that not only are we playing with our relationship with God as if it’s a toy, but also that the relationship remains predictable (it doesn’t take long even for a toddler to learn that the clown pops out at the “Pop!” during “Pop Goes the Weasel”), stagnant (the box won’t move on its own and has to be put away in a toy chest), and under our control instead of God’s (we turn the crank).
While it’s nice to revisit those deeply spiritual times, we can miss out on the new things God wants to do in our lives because we’re more focused on God’s past good things than on God’s future good things. God is straining against the lid of the box, dying to spring out, and when he does, we laugh and it’s as if we put him back in and say, “Do it again, God!”

There may be different circumstances, but the picture is very similar. Say it’s a church. A Vacation Bible School or revival or stewardship campaign is successful one year. Woe to the person who dares suggest that it might not be working so well 20 years later! I know I’m not alone in trying the same thing again — only this time working harder at it. I also know I’m not alone in being tired and disappointed when it doesn’t work. In my personal case, I’m tempted to repeat the same spiritual disciplines in order to recapture a previously fruitful time — I’ve caught myself praying something like, “You’ve done it before God; do it again!”

The lid would be off the God-in-the-box for good if we could pray, “You’ve done this in the past God, now build on it and take me/us to the next level.” What heavenly riches are there that we haven’t begun to imagine?

It’s not easy to relinquish control over our lives, especially when we know God might take us to things like furnaces and lion’s dens, might have us standing up against an army that out-sizes us 100 to 1, leads us to imprisonment, being burned at the stake, or speaking out against true injustice in our society and getting assassinated. Heavens! Most of us don’t even like breaking the social rule of not talking about religion in polite company. Isn’t it funny how we react as if by giving God control of our lives he’s going to lead us into something that will harm us?

There’s a Jewish legend that the sea did not part until the first of the Israelites stepped into the water. Plain and simple, our God-in-the-box is about our faith and trust in God. We’re plenty faithful and trusting as long as we can predict when he’ll pop out of the box.

There was a time when the church first began. It didn’t have a name like St. Mark or 21st Street or First Cathedral. It didn’t even have the name, “Christian.” Not the first Christian hymn (traditional, contemporary, gospel, or praise) had been written. Those in the church identified themselves as followers of “The Way.” It was so new there was no box to put God in; no box of tradition, no box of ritual, no box of “we’ve never done it that way before.” All the followers of The Way could do was let God lead them. Every day was probably an adventure, a discovery of something new. These were the people about to receive the Holy Spirit in a big way (Acts 2), a way that ushered in a new era. If we are to recreate or revisit anything in our spiritual past, it would be this pristine version of a church that had no borders or boundaries like what Christians have put up since the time of the Corinthians and earlier.

God wants to shed the box we keep him in. The next time we pick it up to put it back in the toy chest, let’s instead take God out of the box (or would that be to take the box out from around God) and throw it away altogether?