Only You!

While on my morning walk and meditation, as I’ve shared previously, I pray. This time, I was challenged in my Bible app to imagine placing all of my concerns in a box and handing them over to Jesus. I began naming each concern taking up space in my mind and heart. I recall saying, “God, only you!” “Only you can do this!” “Only you can handle this!” Only you, can prevent forest fires!” I laughed aloud. I recall the public service announcement from Smokey the Bear, who admonished and reminded me and the other young GenXers that “only we could prevent forest fires.” I hate to admit it, but Smokey lied to us. First of all, I lived in the inner city; there were no forests near me. But more importantly, Smokey, along with my independent mom and my other role models, 90% who were women, more specifically Black women, had me believing that I could actually do the impossible. As I’ve matured, I am actually embracing the reality that whether I’ve instigated the fire (or not), I have tangible, “on the ready” access to the One who is able sqelch what consumes me. What a remarkable revelation and concurrently challenging to embrace. When you’ve been socialized to believe and witness that you are responsible, like Simba, “for everything the light touches” it can be difficult to disengage that mentality and surrender everything and everyone to the Master. Yet, is transformational.

What would it look like to model for those coming behind us and beside us the power of release to God? Might we alter troupes that are limiting, confusing and detrimental to our health? Could we make room for our dreams? Would we introduce more play and joy and laughter into our lives? Preventing (forest) fires means implementing measures that repel being consumed. Night before last, I was exhausted. I put Stella to bed about 30 minutes earlier than normal and I went to bed. My FitBit clocked me sleeping 8 and 1/2 hours, and it still didn’t feel like enough. I’ve not been intentional about going to bed as early as I know my body needs, especially for a 5am wakeup time to go to the Y. In this season, “in the middle,” I need more sleep, better quality of food, lots of water and movement. Any deficiency in any area throws everything out of alignment. Similarly, when I don’t engage more of God, I can anticipate multiple deficiencies, with the result being dysfunctional calibration.

Let me be clear. I don’t think for a moment that I can do better or one up God. And, I’ve been conditioned to do what I’ve felt like are tangible, “not to worry God about” things. Yet, what I failed to accept and learn is that God cares about everything that concerns me (1 Peter 5:7). So from something as seemingly insignificant as a hangnail to the recent storm hammering the western part of my home state, at Calvary, we were granted permission to indeed “place all of our concerns” in a box and give them to Jesus. We were never built to prevent forest fires. We were created and fashioned to relinquish all to the consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Glory! God being a “consuming fire” literally means He will burn up everything that harms us and as fire molds and shapes, so we He perform that action in our lives. As we give God what troubles us, He in turn fashions us to endure; yet we must enact the practice of giving God, daily, that which we were never designed to carry on our own. How might you, today, share that truth with someone who is running around looking for a water hose as opposed to pointing them in the direction of the One who told us that “whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow within them?” (John 7:38). We can minimize the “fires of life” as we place our trust in the One who can prevent them. I stand corrected. Smokey may have been reminding us of our power…..just through God and not merely on our own.