Yesterday, I was moving furniture, pics, and boxes with the help of a few friends. In the midst of all the moving, I grabbed a picture that has a rustic wooden frame, as I grabbed it – I felt this pinch or stab into my thumb. You guessed it – SPLINTER – DEEP SPLINTER! I calmly put the picture down, looked at my thumb, and saw the inch long piece of “lumber” sticking out of my thumb. OUCH!!!!! I pull out the splinter, wiped off the drop of blood, and went back to my day.
Later that evening, right before dinner, I notice my thumb was sore. My daughter and I with a flashlight, tweezers, small sharp blade and fingernail clippers started a small surgical process of exploring to see if I had not removed all of the splinter. We couldn’t find anything. Well, when I woke up this morning, thumb was throbbing and a little yellow pocket of infection had formed causing even more discomfort! Pulling out all the same utensils, I went a little deeper. And I struck gold. There is was, a tiny little sliver of wood, causing the discomfort and infection.
As I performed this little removal, I really felt like the Lord was speaking to me. “Sometimes we have to go Way Down Deep!”
Using all the same instruments, process, and knowledge, I had to go deeper to find the leftover splinter. What caused me to stop my exploration through my thumb – my pain. I didn’t feel as though I could tolerate the pain. But this morning, there was a different kind of pain, and that pain said to me “No more splinter – no more pain!”
It is not enough to stay close to the surface. When there are things in your life that are causing you pain and discomfort, we have to go a little further to find the source of the pain. When things are good, there are often things that are better than good – maybe great or the best!
Often times the surfaces is just that – the surface. The place where things are status quo. The place where life is just a pattern of normal and mundane. It is below the surface, or in the deep where the formation of who we are, what we do, and/or why we do it is really formed an molded into what God really has for us!
One of my favorite passages of scripture (as well sermons that my pastor at the church I grew up spoke – many moons ago) is found in Matt. 26:39…
39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
We obviously get a sense of the pain in the voice and the heart of Jesus. But we get first a glimpse of the tenacity and persistence of Christ as well. “He went a little further!” He didn’t stay status quo. He went deeper. Way down deep!
Psalm 42:7, tells us, “Deep call to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.“
Today, I don’t know your situation. I know mine though, and I need to go deeper. I want to go deeper. Wherever you and I are at, whatever you and I are going through, no matter the feelings or emotions… Let the depth of His love for you and I crash over us. Let the depth of His love, call out to our need to be loved by Him!
Romans 8:3 & 39, “For I am convinced…neither height or depth…will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
I don’t know about you, but I want to go deeper! So that Jesus can go “Way Down Deep”!