Out of the Box

Another older one...

You know, this may be completely and totally useless, but I had this random thought today.
I was passing by the normal scenery, and I noticed something I've never seen before, even in the thousands of times I've passed it. I saw this Jack-In-The-Box sign at a random gas station, and I saw that the "o" and "x" of "box" are connected in such a way that they make the Jesus fish symbol that Christians are so proud of. And I realized,
Sometimes we need to think outside of the box to find God in the everyday things. It's not hard, but it takes a new level of thinking. You have to be aware of Him, and looking for Him. I think that's what it means when the Bible says, "seek and you shall find."
And lately, I've been finding God in the most peculiar of places. It's so weird to me that I can be looking for God in all the shallow places of my life, the obvious places to find Him working, and instead in the places where I think out of the box, I find Him everywhere. Wow.... So, in short, God never ceases to amaze me by humbling me. Everytime I think I have Him figured out, or that He may be done working with me for awhile, He shows up, mostly in the places where I need the most work, such as trusting Him to work in the mundane places of my life. It's so mind-blowing that in the little plans that I have that I think He wouldn't work in, He does, and it just makes me realize that I don't have His plans all figured out. He has so much more for me. I'm not just going to go to NLC, work at IBC, work at Saltgrass, go to Common Ground, apply to colleges, and then find a new place to live next fall... I'm going to be involved in many little things that maybe aren't so little in the big scheme of things, such as little girls in Xite Nite, new friends, resurfacing friendships.
But the main goal of it all, this whole life really, is to become that which He made me to be. To find myself, whom He made. And whatever He makes is good and perfect in its first nature, so really, I'm finding goodness.
So, an encouragement... sift through your heart and find some goodness. Examine the little things in your life that may or may not be mundane and find the goodness in it. When you drive down the street, look at the clouds while you wait at a traffic light. When you are stuck in traffic, think about the drivers around you and do a little people-watching. God is in the small stuff they say. And I say that not only that, but good is there too, because God is good. Good is God. Just try it once. It's pretty fun.
And don't forget to smile! :o)