Quite possibly, no two words are as dreaded or cause as big a panic as the announcement of a “Gas Shortage”. Immediately, everyone races to their cars and gets in line to fill their gas tank before station pumps run dry. It’s the norm for the wait in line to be hours long. However, the length of wasted time doesn’t matter, if one can drive away feeling they stand a chance of surviving the shortage because their tank is filled with fuel.
Just a few weeks ago, one such shortage hit the East Coast and my very own garage. For once, God’s grace, and insight, (through His whisper of a question) influenced my eyes, and soul, to view the pending disaster very differently. This time I heard God’s question instead of my prayers for the answer of where to find fuel for my car tank. What was God’s question? It was: My child, are you as concerned for a supply of fuel for your soul as you are for your car?
Upon reflection, I realized God was not reprimanding me but reminding me. He was opening up new meaning and understanding for a years old custom of mine. With God’s better viewpoint offered me, my calling now is to gift others with the message of “my Fueling Station”.
We, children of God, often fall short of the encouraging energy needed to drive through many of the trials and tribulations populating the roads on our journey to heaven. We fail to even realize if a car needs fuel to complete a route, so, also, do our souls. Signs along the highways point all travelers to fueling stations for their autos. Yet, it is anything but automatic for our souls to be navigated to a fueling station. Is not their journey even more important than any, and all, of our cars’ road trips?
In honesty, out of need, I personally do have a designated “fueling station” for my soul; but till this week, and God’s question, I never recognized it as such. Now, my hope is, not only, to share mine with you, but also, to encourage you to build your own.
Many years ago, I found myself jotting down on post-it notes cherished Scripture verses and my own spiritual thoughts. These fragments began to adorn the inside wall of my desk’s hutch. As you most likely can imagine, I spend many hours sitting at my desk. What I’ve come to realize (via God’s recent whisper of a question) is that all my hutch’s notes have become “my Fueling Station”. When my soul is worn, torn and running out of energy, I customarily plop down in my desk chair and let the messages of the notes stuck to my hutch flow into my soul. By the time I move on from being parked at my desk, my soul is re-fueled with God’s faith, hope and love – the energy needed to fuel the next leg of my journey to heaven.
What about you? Do you have your own “Fueling Station”? Sunday Church is more of an oil change and re-alignment for our souls. Too often, mid-week we run out of “soul fuel” and even chugging our way to Sunday Church is beyond our reach. The haven of a “Fueling Station” is within each and every one of our grasps. My hope and prayer is that any, and all, who do not yet have a “Fueling Station” for their souls make time this week and begin to build one. Find a corner (somewhere, anywhere) that you can frame in a representation of anything that comforts, inspires and energizes your soul. Then when your soul seems empty, there will be no fear or doubt that re-fueling might run dry. 24/7/365, your “Fueling Station” awaits your soul’s need.
“I pray that the God who gives hope will FILL you with much joy and peace as you trust in Him. Then you will have more and more hope, and it will flow out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 (ERV)
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 