There are moments in everyone’s life where we are asked to do something, and we can see a clear path to making it work. You’ve been asked to step up or take on something new. You buy a new car and now have a new bill. You can analyze and prepare and see a way to make it work. You squeeze it into your budget or you squeeze it into your already tight schedule, and you push on.
Then there are other times. Significant life altering moments when you are called to do a thing that does not make any logical sense. You don’t have the bandwidth or the skills needed. You see something or read something that makes your heart ache until you fall asleep. It’s there first thing in the morning. It’s a problem, and your heart is wired to ache for it. You think to yourself, “that is so sad.” You share an article with a friend maybe, but it ends there, because, well, what could you really do about it anyway? Or maybe that thing you are called to is too big for you. Someone else will do it. Someone else will have to step up. Or, matter of fact, "God, why don't You do something about this?!"
In this moment we have a choice. We can stuff it down like all of the rest of the hard and sad stuff in this world or you can pray the boldest prayer. “Lord, if it’s your will, send me.”
There are moments in your life that all of the prayers, processing, and plans could never bring about a clear path to take you to the thing God is calling you to. It’s something you’ve never done. It’s beyond you and out of your comfort zone. And, there is no literal way for it to work out. That is, unless God steps in and we let him do the flexing.
This is where we find, what I like to call, a “God Gap”.
You are standing on one edge of a cliff overlooking a great expanse. You can see the other side, but you don’t have the tools you need to get there. You had skills and a map to get this far, but to continue, you’d need something else. You’d need a bridge, or at the least, a tight rope. This “God Gap” is the space between what you can do for yourself, and what you could never do on your own. It’s a calling to something that is so much bigger than you, right outside of what feels comfortable. It’s a step out onto the water, with your eyes unmoving from Jesus or you’ll most definitely sink.
We experience the fullness of God, when we make space for him to roar. When we hear a call and don’t think about the “how” we just focus on the “who”.
In her Autobiography, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells about her experience living in the city of Haarlem during the Nazi occupation. Corrie and her family bravely defied tyranny to rescue their Jewish neighbors who faced death during the Holocaust. Eventually, she was found out and sent to Ravensbruck, known as the “death camp.” She described her living quarters as filthy, crowded and flea-ridden. There were no beds, only platforms with dusty straw and eight women where four should sleep. But it would be in this space that God would call Corrie to share the truth from the Bible. the Bible that she would sneak in. These barracks would be a safe zone for Corrie to spread the hope of Jesus because no guard would come near due to the level of filth.
Corrie’s testimony is one of an ordinary woman who served an extraordinary God. She experienced many “God Gap” moments but, let me tell you about one.
All new prisoners to Ravensbruck were being searched for any type of contraband. Corrie had a Bible that she kept on a string around her neck. By this time, her dress was so thin, that the Bible could have been seen sticking out from across a courtyard. Every single prisoner was patted down aggressively. She prayed, “Lord. Cause now Thine angels to surround me; and let them not be transparent today, for the guards must not see me.”
She recalled that everyone was checked from the front, the sides, and the back, not a bulge escaped the eyes of the guard. The woman just in front of her had a woolen vest under her dress; it was taken from her. But, they let Corrie pass; they did not see her.
A second set of guards searched them, just as thoroughly as the first. She wrote, “I knew they would not see me, for the angels were still surrounding me.” And, they didn’t.
This is a God gap.
Corrie’s call: take the Bible into the prison. Minister to the women there.
God’s response to her step of obedient faith: I will make you invisible.
An unexplainable, undeniable, gap. A space between what Corrie could do on her own and what God did for his plan to prosper.
Ok, so God has never asked me to risk my life by hiding a Bible under my paper-thin dress while being tormented for loving my neighbors. But, if I am quiet enough, still enough, in His word enough, I do experience moments in my ordinary days where God asks me to have faith enough to see his strength.
When Josh and I moved to Nashville, it was for him to go to school full time. He worked odd and end jobs here and there, but we mostly were living off of my salary in a very expensive city. As a school-based speech therapist my work and pay extended from August to May every year. The first summer we were there, I began searching for part-time work to fill the financial gap of summer time. I took a seemingly great speech therapy job. I worked for a few weeks, and realized it was not an honest place to work. I never received payment for my work completed and with only a month left before school started up again, I couldn’t find another job. We had saved well throughout the school year, however we needed about $2,000 to fill the gap.
I come from a family that takes “carry each other’s burdens” to another level. My parents would have allowed us to borrow that money or even just given it to us in a heartbeat. WITH JOY! But, sometimes I think we react too quickly, rushing around like little crazies, frantically trying to solve our own problems. We forget to invite God into our messes, and we miss opportunities to see him work. God wanted us to trust Him. So, this time, we prayed.
Before our bills were due, my dad called and said, “Your grandma wants to give each of her grandkids some money. I’ll be putting the check in the mail today.” I couldn’t believe it, but it was exactly what we needed. To the dollar. I still remember the burn I felt in my heart when my dad told me. God had moved, and I had let him.
God loves you so wildly my friend. He was specific and careful as he knit you in your mother’s womb and he is so specific and careful as he lovingly fills in your life’s “gaps”. Would you try on some risky faith and let him love you?
What’s he asking of you? What’s holding you back? Maybe it’s to go on a mission’s trip or take time to serve a local mission. Maybe he wants you to step into His church again, even though you were so hurt by another one (Please message me if this is the case. I would love to help!) Maybe it’s to start a community group of women to share coffee and muffins with or go ahead with those business plans you’ve been holding onto. Could it be to forgive that friend or end a bad relationship?
Maybe it’s to finally let go of the illusion of control you’ve created for yourself. To surrender. To throw your hands up in the air and shout “I can’t!” To kneel down at God’s feet and ask him to fill the gaps in your heart because the things of this world just aren’t cutting it. Let him be your Savior sweet sister. He knows you don’t have what it takes!!! And that is ok, because HE DOES! Would you surrender the things you can’t do on your own and let him flex?
The greatest God gap filler of all is Jesus. Let him be your bridge to this life and the next. We were not created to do it on our own. We could never be good enough. But, Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection is our hope that we don’t have to be.
We have a choice to make. We can go about life in our own strength. And we will fail, daily. Or, we can recognize that it is in our weaknesses that God wants to fill the Gap and be our strength. In this, we will fail too! But, we will have a savior who will lift our heads and carry us to the finish line. We get to choose.
Savior King Jesus, you have called us to greater things than living for Friday’s. You don’t need us, but you want to use us. You want us to trust you enough to be used by you for mighty works. Sometimes our daily activities feel even too heavy to bear. God, we lay our heavy burdens down right now. Your Word promises that your yoke is light and you want to trade with us. God, we want to trust you will come through for us as we take this risky step of faith, help us in our doubts God. As we leap, would you flex? Help us to let go of comparisons and fear that may hold us back. Your strength be perfected in our weaknesses God. We surrender to your will and your way. Make us brave God as we trust you to make a way. Amen
Thank you for being with me this morning. You have truly been a blessing to me. I would love for you to share in the comments below, something God is calling you to. Something that you feel you cannot manage, but you are choosing to pray “Yes Lord. I will. send me.” Because you are trusting Him to fill in your gaps.
Jessica
Boom, Corrie, John Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill. 1920. The Hiding Place. New York, NY: Bantam.