JENNA ELFMAN

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

 

 

I had an amazing opportunity to go to Haiti last year with Convoy of Hope.  I saw firsthand the amazing work Convoy is doing through their Feed One Project.  Children – many who would otherwise go hungry, receive nutritious meals that open the door to share the love of Christ.  All of this is possible because generous people give $10 a month to feed a child.

I spent a lot of time on the plane for this trip.  I flew from Fresno to San Francisco to Miami to Port a Prince, Haiti.  On the way back I got stuck in Miami because of a big storm.  We sat on the plane for 2 hours before it finally was cleared to leave.  I was exhausted and was filled with thoughts of sleeping in my own bed and eating meals that were familiar.  I wanted to be home; I found comfort in the small screen in front of me that played a rotation of the new shows that NBC had come out with:  Chicago PD, Growing Up Fisher, and About a Boy.  Over and over again the rotation of the same episodes of these three shows played.  During the trip to Haiti and back I had to have seen each episode at least 4 times.

My favorite of the list was “Growing Up Fisher.”  It’s a story about a lawyer who’s pretending to be blind played by JK Simmons and his soon to be ex-wife played by Jenna Elfman.  I had seen this show so many times, and spent so much time with these characters that when I finally reached LA on my way back home I noticed a tall, beautiful, blonde woman that I could have sworn was Jenna Elfman.  Perhaps I was losing it from a lack of sleep or had seen the show way too many times.  But as I got closer I heard someone ask:  “Are you Jenna Elfman?”  She said:  “Yes.”  Soon people gathered around her to meet her and her 4 year old son who were taking the short flight from LA to Fresno to see Yosemite.  It was crazy!

I couldn’t help but notice, the more you’re consumed with something the more you’ll see it in life.  The more you’re consumed with negativity the more you’ll see negativity around you.  The more you’re consumed with worry the more you’ll spot new, fresh things to worry about.  The more you expect your spouse to blow it, the more you notice when they do.  We’re training our eyes to see what we see.  Just as the vulture is trained to see dead things and the hummingbird is trained to see living things, we’re ultimately we becoming what we beholding.

Paul’s encouraging us to allow God’s Word to “dwell” in us richly.  That means that it needs to make itself at home in us.  Sarah and I visited the home of one of our pastor friends last night.  He said, “Make yourself at home.”  I don’t think he REALLY meant it.  You see, when I’m at MY home there’s no off limits.  There’s no room that I can’t snoop around it in or closet door I can’t open. 

God’s Word is nosey.  As much as we’d like it to stay in one area of our life, it has a way of searching out the rooms that are a mess and the closet doors we’d rather keep closed.  But the more it invades the more it brings life.  The more I’m in it the more it starts to renew everything around me.  The more I'm consumed by it, the more it changes my perspective. 

It’s an amazing thing when I read and meditate on God’s Word in the morning only to discover that it was exactly what I needed during my day.  I only had the answer during the time of need because I spent time IN the answer.