Closet Faith

I decided that if my daughter's closet was ever going to get a good cleaning,I was going to have to inspire her by helping her-- from the inside. It was either that or toss in a grenade. I probably shouldn't confess that I did look around for an aisle marked "Miscellaneous Explosives" at WalMart. But since I never found it, we had to go in. Oh, the frightening things a mother must do!

Mind you, Kaley is fifteen and we've only lived in the house for three years. Still, from the look of it, that closet hadn't had a good cleaning for a couple of decades. I thought about the origin of the word "closet." Isn't it from the Greek, "closetorium," which means "where the dog wouldn't even throw up"?

We found broken crayons stuck to an old sucker stick. We were both amazed that there was so much stickiness when it had been at least two years since she'd eaten it (the sucker, not the crayons). We found a math paper from third grade, the box from her SpongeBob clock, her cheerleading uniform from three years before and a VCR she had taken apart and couldn't get back together. But do you know what's worse than six thousand VCR pieces? Eight thousand price tags! She still had the tags from every item purchased over the last six years. Tag-team closet-cleaning!

Maybe it would have been better if we'd just closed the closet door. Couldn't I at least just close my eyes?

No, I guess that's not always best. Second Kings 6 tells of a time when a warring king had surrounded Elisha's entire city. Verse 15 says "there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere." They were in a situation a thousand times stickier than any two-year-old sucker. Elisha's servant asked what in the world they should do and Elisha replied, "Don't be afraid! For our army is bigger than theirs!"

I can imagine Elisha's servant fighting the urge to say, "So, Elisha-- math is not your thing, huh?" But Elisha did something grand that he really didn't have to do. He asked God to open his servant's eyes. Verse 17 says, "The Lord opened the young man's eyes so that he could see horses of fire and chariots of fire everywhere upon the mountain!" (TLB) A heavenly army that numbered more than the miscellaneous pieces of any VCR!

How many times is my faith about as small as my earthly vision? I can all too often become like Thomas who wouldn't believe until he could see for himself. Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (NIV)

Seeing is believing. But believing without seeing is real faith. That's a truly priceless faith (no price tag needed). Do you ever wonder what the Heavenly Father might be doing this very minute that we can't see? Do we trust Him in complete faith, even when He doesn't "open our eyes" to those things?

I'm asking God for an eyes-wide-open faith, even when my eyes are closed. That's the kind of faith that can accomplish big things-- even cleaning a closet without C-4.

If you're interested, there is more information about:
The most important event of all time and
The most important Book of all time.

email this message to a friend   |   DW Home

Contributed by Rhonda Rhearrhea@juno.comRhonda Rhea writes for dozens of great Christian publications and speaks at conferences and events across the country.  You can find her new book, Amusing Grace, at your local Christian bookstore.  Rhonda's husband, Richie Rhea, is a pastor in Troy, Missouri.  You can reach them through her Web site atwww.rhondarhea.net