God of Big Spaces

If we're guilty of anything, it is of living lives that are too small for God. 

When I say something like this, there's an immediate nervousness that trickles through our bones. Oh, no, we think. This isn't gonna be one of those things where we talk about God calling us to remote village in Tonga and our having to uproot our entire lives and do something really extreme, is it? 

No. It's not. 

I just mean that sometimes, we dream too small. We get this idea in our heads that God has one thing for us in our lives, and we spend our entire lives looking for that one thing, and we try to wrap our entire lives around that one thing so that there is this massive hedge of protection around one very small space that we are willing to call "holy," and then we spend our entire lives trying to live in that box...all the while claiming that God has put us there. 

This is only enhanced if we ever do any geographical study of the history of God. If you've done any looking into geography, you know that in the grand scheme of things, Israel is a pretty small place. This land of Canaan that God promised to give to His people is not a massive stretch of land. It can seem like God is maybe trying to just nestle His people into somewhere beautiful and safe, somewhere small enough to have a strong hedge of protection around it.

But that's not what the Scriptures say about Canaan, no matter how we interpret the map. The Bible says that the Promised Land was a land "with a lot of room." A lot of space. Space to grow, to expand. It even tells us in another place that God told His people He would drive out the other nations slowly, only as quickly as His people could actually move into the land, so that it wouldn't become overgrown with vegetation and wild animals and have to be re-cultivated. 

It looks small on the map, but Canaan was no small place. It was big and spacious with lots of room. 

So if you find yourself in a life right now that's so small that you can't spread your wings and grow, I'm telling you - your life is too small. God never made your box that little. 

And if that's where you are, it's time to step out into the bigger promise, into that place that God is calling you. A place where there is "a lot of room." 

Because that's what God really has for you.