It was a cold January night, and I was finally meeting with a new friend whom I’d met months earlier and neglected to contact. My life was falling apart, and I needed a friend who shared my faith, one I could gain wisdom from. As we sat and ate dinner at the neighborhood bar and grill, she asked me what I was still holding on to, what I hadn’t been willing to give up to God. I thought on the question for a few moments, and she took the basket of popcorn from the middle of the table and began to use it to illustrate her point.
She explained that when we become Christians, we start to give up some of the things in our life to God, but we reluctantly hold on to others, the ones we aren’t ready to lose control of. She took a handful of the popcorn and placed it on a napkin. “Here, God, you can have these parts of my life, maybe I’ll worship you with music and I’ll come to church on Sundays and volunteer… and maybe this one – partying every weekend with friends; and this one – some of my money…” as she singled out a few more pieces of the popcorn. “But these – these ones are mine,” and she pulled the rest of the basket in close to her body.
As we become more willing to truly live for Christ, we slowly hand over more and more of the pieces. God gave them all to us in the first place, so He knows the best way to handle each of the pieces. The problem is that until we’re ready to let them go and lose control of things (that we ultimately don’t have any control over anyway), God won’t do anything with any of them. He sees that we’re still white-knuckling that particular problem or part of our life, and He lets us keep that one to ourselves. When we hold on to something so tightly, we aren’t allowing room for His grace or for His perfect plan to develop naturally. We’re basically telling God to back off and butt-out; we’d rather have it our broken and imperfect way.
Suddenly my friend jumped out of her seat and told me to wait there. She darted away from the table and out of sight. I sat confused. When she reappeared at the table, she had a small styrofoam container for leftovers and told me to grab my coat and purse. I put my coat on as she dumped the popcorn into both sides of the styrofoam container and closed it quickly to keep all of the pieces contained. She handed me the container, put on her coat, took her purse and then grabbed me by the hand and told me to hurry. I had absolutely no idea where we were going or what we were going to do – and I barely knew this woman.
A couple of blocks away, we stopped jogging as we got to the river and walked onto a dock that overlooked the dam. I held my popcorn container snugly. The water rushed over the dam beneath us and the sound was so loud, we almost had to shout to each other. She told me to look down at the roaring water and think about how my life had been up to this point. The parallel was unnerving. She asked what word best described both and only one came to mind: chaos.
My life was a mess. Why did I want to keep holding on to that?
Then she pointed down river a little way and asked me to take in that scenery. The river was calm, the water looked nearly still. There were snow-covered trees on both sides and a slight glow from the street lamps above. She asked me to describe what I saw.
Serenity. It was a peaceful and quiet beauty. I knew instantly that’s what I wanted in my life and there was only one way to get there.
As we stood on the dock and looked ahead, she told me that I would have to let go of the rest of my pieces in order to receive the peace that only God could give me. That thought settled in and some profound realizations hit me. I didn’t have to try so hard. I didn’t have to be in control of every situation. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes – and admit it. I didn’t have to worry so much about what other people thought of me. I didn’t have to worry so much about life in general. All I had to do was give it all up to God and let Him take care of me.
She prayed for me and told me that she would walk away for a while so that I could talk to God and give Him the rest of my pieces. I could give Him one piece at a time, or I could just dump them all in. For a minute, I gazed at the crashing water beneath the dock, then at the perfect serene representation downstream. Then I started to pray. I told God that I was ready to let it all go; I was ready to release my control to Him. I told Him that I wanted Him to take it all away from me and use my life His way, not mine.
For His purpose, not mine. For His glory, not mine.
I turned the container of popcorn upside down and watched as the pieces floated down and got tossed and tumbled around when they hit the crashing water. I realized that was me in life. Everything that I tried to control ended up controlling me, and I was caught up in the confusion of this world, being tossed around and drowning in my own fears. I turned away from the chaos and focused my attention on the peace ahead. I prayed again and thanked God for putting this woman in my life to give me an image that I’ll never forget. An image I’ll always be able to recall when fear starts to run my life and I need to be reminded to let go of my popcorn.
by Guest Writer Robin Stoddard
Are you ready to let God take control and move forward in faith? Come make friends and learn about walking in the freedom & grace of God at Crossing Recovery!
We are in the middle of the I Love My Church series, and I want to share why I love my church. First off, I want to say that I don’t want anyone to think that I don’t like other churches, or that I think my church is the best. All Christian churches are valuable to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is just why I love my church.
I love how The Crossing not only preaches about grace, but we also live it. Pastor Kelly just explained last weekend that we are an outreach church. We are trying to reach those who are far from God. That is why we do things the way that we do. We just want everyone to know that Jesus loves them. It is always only about Jesus. It doesn’t matter where we came from, or what we've done, or even might still be doing. Jesus is bigger than all of that.
Every life is valuable to Jesus, so every life is valuable to us.
Some may think that the message is watered-down so that it only appeals to those who are far from God. Some may say that a mature Christian can’t grow here. I say that while much of each message is targeted toward the outsider or “baby Christian”, someone who is more mature in their faith still gets fed. We encourage everyone to get in the game. That is how faith continues to grow!
I don’t believe that God wants to just coach us how to have a better life and then watch us sit on the bench or in the bleachers. I firmly believe that we learn stuff to put it into practice.
The Crossing does an awesome job of teaching that.
The Crossing’s mission is to thrill people with God’s grace and move them to life in Christ. That is it. At The Crossing, we like to call ourselves Hope Dealers. We reach those who are far from God. We give them grace. We show them grace. We teach them grace. Once they get that, we give them opportunities and encourage them to do the same for others.
We just think that everyone should know Jesus, because He is awesome. That is why I love my church!
by Guest Writer Silas Austin
Why do you love your church? Click here to tell us your story!
About a year ago, God challenged a couple at The Crossing (Andy and Helen*), to be generous and give away one of their cars. For a year, they looked for the person who was supposed to be the recipient of their truck - but each opportunity seemed to fall through. Nothing seemed to work out. So they sat on this desire for a year, always on the lookout for someone in need.
About six weeks ago, a woman named Liz* moved from Clearwater to the Elk River area. Liz wasn’t able to get a job because she didn’t have a car, and she couldn’t get a car because she didn’t have the money. She seemed stuck.
As she was sleeping in her apartment one evening, she woke up to her windows rattling because of the loud music from the church down the street. Unable to sleep, she went out and sat on her deck, listening to the band at The Crossing for a while. She’s always been a huge music buff, so when it happened again the next week, she walked over to the service. She’s been coming to The Crossing ever since.
The first time she visited, someone greeted her and asked about her life. Liz explained how she didn’t have a job, and wasn’t able to get one because she didn’t have a car. That’s all she remembers from the conversation.
The person she was talking to just happened to be Helen. As they were talking, Helen felt with certainty that this was the person to whom they were supposed to give their car.
Two weeks later, Liz got a call from Pastor Jason, who said to come over to the church because he had something for her. She walked over and he handed her the keys and a title to a truck.
She knew instantly that this was a blessing from God. “The good Lord knew I’ve been without a car for a year, and I didn’t have the money to get one,” she said.
Liz had been born and raised in church, but after attending a Christian school and church for 12 years, she was burnt out. She stopped going to church for many years. She says it’s no coincidence that God provided for her needs once she started attending church again. “Matthew 6:33 says that if you seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, all these things will be added to you. For many years I didn’t go to church, and my life wasn’t the best. I went to church, and BOOM, I started getting blessed.”
Helen says that she thought this experience would end their urge to be generous, but in fact, it has done the exact opposite. “Since I gave the truck away, I have more open hands and I trust in Christ’s provision. God has been providing us with more. It’s amazing to watch how we can tithe over-and-above, but we still can give to others based on the Holy Spirit’s direction. It’s been a fun ride.”
God knows our needs and knows exactly how they can be met. This story is just one of many that shows us God’s clever timing. The same time that Liz lost her car, Andy and Helen felt the calling to give theirs away. But a whole year passed before God put them together, so that their faith in God’s provision could be strengthened.
“God is always there,” Liz says now. “Sometimes He doesn’t provide for your needs right away... He blesses people [in] His time.”
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.
