Tight Spaces

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like tight spaces! And long flights, over oceans, no leg room, no elbow room, no stretch space…. Ugh! And we volunteered for this!

I know what you are thinking. Why didn’t we pay the extra for the sleeping seats? It would have only been a couple of extra thousand a piece. You only live once.

Needless to say, we are glad you weren’t talking over our shoulders when we were purchasing the tickets. Who knows how high you would have pushed our budget. Do you work for the airlines?

I didn’t expect too much luxury, and I wasn’t disappointed. It is just a flight. It will be over soon. I have to keep telling myself these things as the hours tick past. The shower in Tokyo airport will feel so good. And then just one more three hour flight and we will be there.

The funny thing about life is that it is filled with tight spaces. Even people who purchase land in the middle of nowhere end up in tight spaces. Their wood supply runs short for the winter and it is still below zero. That is a tight space. They don’t catch as much fish as they need, so their protein levels drop below what is needed to survive.

Or when the payments on the toys are due, and the money went for food. Tight space.

Or the job ends abruptly and no one is hiring. Tight.

You see, we must all learn to deal with tight spaces. God calls us to some tight spaces. When He points out some area of darkness in our life and asks us to open it up to His light, it can feel like He is breathing over our shoulder. It can feel like He is hemming us in on every side trying to get us to yield.

Sometimes as we follow the LORD the path becomes so narrow that we only have one option: move forward in faith. We can’t move left or right and turning around can’t happen. So we must continue through.

Psalm 23:4 speaks of the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death. It is a pretty dark place, an uncomfortable place, and perhaps a scary place. But the promise exists that He will be with us in those tight spots. Tight spots don’t limit the infinite God’s ability to be there. He doesn’t take up much space, even though He fills the whole universe.

So as I sit in this seat, hemmed in on every side, my bride at my side, heading to a place we have never been to minister to people we have never met, we know we are right in the middle of God’s will. We are excited to see how He will use these broken vessels to display His treasure.

Lord, may you be seen. Hide us behind the glory of your presence. Please hide us, and what we  do, in such a way that people will see the Only One, Jesus our Savior.