Squid Goals in Spiritual Transformation

I saw this insane Dodo video of an octopus squeezing its’ gelatinous body through a small opening on a boat deck to return to sea. You probably did, too. This voluminous pink guy / girl (couldn’t tell with the suckers flying akimbo) was on a ship. Once the squid found a tiny opening and sent out a shooter of a limb, a transformation like nothing I have ever seen transpired. 

With elongated tentacle feeling the water, the creature miraculously pushed through an inches-wide opening like only Invertebrates can. They have all the best party tricks, don’t they? Watching this determined oozing looked like a gallon zip-lock bag of Slime willing itself through a keyhole. Which of course reminded me of Jesus. Obviously. 

My soul has been stirred lately by not only Dodo Animal Instagram Posts but the awe-inspiring thought of God involving us in His work in this World. I will never get over the thrill of that still, small voice in my gut prompting me to act. God could efficiently accomplish everything without us but all I can figure is that He must get inordinate joy  when we do things together. 

Honestly, saying yes to the whisper can feel both silly and invasive at times. Like when I stopped to offer my blanket scarf and pink stretch gloves to a man at the bus stop across from Church for The Highlands. I saw him in his short-sleeved shirt and the temperature was in the 30’s. He had a military hat on and I’m done. I love a veteran. So I grabbed my scarf and approached him. 

I greeted the gentleman and asked if I could put my scarf on him. He paused and finally nodded yes. I tucked the plaid scarf around his shoulders and then tried to secure it into his wheelchair between his leg and the chair’s right side. 

“Ouch!” He squealed and I instantly stopped. 

“I am SO SORRY!” I exclaimed. 

He replied with what I thought was the phrase, “I’ve got macerated flesh”

Feeling like I just successfully executed the worst good deed EVER, I quickly moved onto gloves. I asked him if it was ok to put the pink gloves on him. He had no reply. Beat. Beat. Crickets. Barely audible, he finally mumbled, “Do you have…..anything…….manly?” 

I said that I would sure go back to the car and look. I ran back and thankfully found a new pair of black stretchy gloves I was donating to Maggie Lee’s Closet. I returned, presented the manlier gloves to him and finally got the nod. With his permission I began pulling the gloves onto his wind-chapped hands. 

Like that stellar example, collaboration with an invisible entity can be tricky at times. Leave it to me to make things weird.  Yet it was holy ground where God urged me to do what I could with what I had to notice another person. Who knows if my blanket scarf warmed him or his red cheeks were merely a soldier’s humiliation but his face stayed with me.  I still think about him constantly and how difficult his life must be. 

In the end analysis, as God uses encounters to change us we won’t always feel like Ellen donating libraries to grateful schools amid dropping balloons. Transformation can pinch. Sometimes we just feel like a clumsy boob. But the fact that God cares enough about my soul to invite me to join Him, knowing full well my clumsy, indelicate nature to try and warm this one person both moved and changed me. 

In my enthusiastically awkward attempts at being the hands and feet of Christ, I have not only God’s word as my guide and inspiration and Jesus’ life for imitation but God’s Spirit for collaboration. In my experience, faith is that tiny opening to another world which requires struggle and adaptation to get through. As Jesus called it “the narrow way; the path of Spanx when others obliviously eat dip in their fat pants on deck. 

So, what if proximity to God actually trumps performance for God?  I try to leave my soul open to eternity and give The Spirit free reign to squish me however is needed for any given day. I am not making resolutions. They depend far too heavily on my emotional resolve. I am praying for change which only God can bring and will get in a position to be changed. That’s all we can do: to humbly throw out a tentacle and reach for home. 

#faith 

#squids

#spiritualtransformation

#Godsworkintheworld 

#jinnyhenson