Beyond Lip Service
Sometimes the most powerful messages come from the simplest places, like the children's song we chose for our Holiday Bible Club: "Our God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing that He cannot do!"
I believe those words with my whole heart. I truly do! I can recite countless Bible verses about God's unlimited power. I've taught lessons about His omnipotence. I've written devotions about it. But then our three-day Holiday Bible Club happened.
After weeks of glorious Welsh sunshine (a rare treat indeed!), the forecast suddenly changed. The very week we'd planned to host children in our not-so-waterproof tent, the heavens opened. Wind whipped at the tent sides while rain drummed relentlessly overhead. Oh, bother!
"Of all the weeks for the weather to turn," I cried, watching water drip from the tent poles overhead. "We've had beautiful weather for a month, and now this?"
On the first day, only two children braved the elements to join us. My heart sank as I looked at our carefully prepared crafts, games, and snacks intended for many more. "Lord," I prayed silently, "we've been planning this for months. The timing couldn't be worse."
And that's when it hit me. There was a serious disconnect between what I say I believe and how I often live. The irony wasn't lost on me that we were singing "Our God is so big, so strong, and so mighty" while I was fretting over a bit of rain and wind.
The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 32:27, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?"
The answer is a resounding no! Nothing is too difficult for our God. Not a rainstorm, not low attendance, not a flimsy tent—nothing. Not even the wind that kept blowing the pieces off my flannel board.
Let's face it, while most of us would quickly affirm God's omnipotence in theory, we often live as functional atheists, behaving as if everything depends on us rather than on Him.
Day two of our Holiday Bible Club arrived with no improvement in the weather, yet miraculously, ten children filled our tent! Their laughter and enthusiasm drowned out the patter of rain. By day three, we had five dedicated attendees, and we'd even found creative ways to incorporate the weather into our Bible lessons.
Living like we actually believe in God's omnipotence looks like:
Singing "Our God is so big" in a leaky tent and truly meaning it
Finding teaching opportunities in the very circumstances we'd rather avoid
Celebrating two children as enthusiastically as twenty
Trusting God's perfect timing, even when it seems all wrong to us
Measuring success by faithfulness, not by numbers or perfect conditions
God wasn't surprised by the rain, and He certainly wasn't limited by it. In fact, He used it to deepen the impact of our lessons in ways sunshine never could have.
So I ask, do we merely believe in God's omnipotence, or do we live like we believe it? Because when we truly grasp that nothing is impossible with God, everything changes, including how we face our next rainy event.