Scribble Pad

A number of people are familiar with the ‘scribble pad’ analogy of my life.

For a long time, I have thought myself to be some sort of scribble pad where God writes His first drafts and makes all the adjustments to particular stories He tries to tell before sending them out for mass print.

There are many times I have gone through certain trials, things not peculiar to me, but in the time seemed to have left me feeling isolated. In those seasons, walking with God step by step has been my only survival tactic, and when I eventually come out and share my story, a number of people start popping out of nowhere with tales of how they currently are going through what I had just been through and didn’t know how to find their way out. But by God’s mercy, I’ll be there, holding the map in my hand, just because the Lord chose to use me to test the path.

This morning I was reading the devotion portion of the Bible in a Year plan I’m currently using; the Nikki Gumble one on YouVersion. Nikki wrote about the life-changing power of the word of God and how important it is for us as believer to focus on it like the food we eat. He wrote about how David, Jesus and Moses valued God’s word and lived by them. As I read, my mind wandered off thinking about a number of people who I knew needed to read or listen to certain parts of scripture because of a fault or a flaw that needs fixing in them. It wasn’t long before I was stopped in my tracks by the Spirit of Truth:

“It’s easy to read scripture and think about those who need it, and you don’t realise that you need it the most.”

I stopped.

“If you don’t allow my word to do its work in you, how can others know that my word is powerful enough to transform their lives?”

I continued to ponder on what I had heard and moved on to my other favourite devotional: My Utmost for His Highest. That was when I knew that God was addressing something serious and He wasn’t being passive about it.

“The greatest characteristic a Christian can exhibit is this completely unveiled openness before God, which allows that person’s life to become a mirror for others. When the Spirit fills us, we are transformed, and by beholding God we become mirrors. You can always tell when someone has been beholding the glory of the Lord, because your inner spirit senses that he mirrors the Lord’s own character. Beware of anything that would spot or tarnish that mirror in you. It is almost always something good that will stain it— something good, but not what is best. – excepts from Transformed by Beholding

In the many times that my story served as a map pointing the right path to others, I had submitted myself to the word and allowed it to shape my decisions and my thinking. If I receive God’s word and my first response is to serve it to someone else, how will I ever be transformed?

The tendency is for us to keep in focus the flaws of others and every sermon we hear preached, we wish they were sitting right beside us to hear it for themselves, and we leave having gotten nothing for ourselves; we leave the same.

I don’t ever want to be that self-righteous person who sees the spec in the eyes of those around me when I carry a log in mine. And if I ever want to remain God’s scribble pad, I best keep my focus on Him and me. He will sort out everyone else in His time.