Rubber Band Man

I like rubber bands. I don't know why but I always have. I used to make rubber band balls when I was a kid. I always kept the ones they put around our newspapers. I still keep rubber bands when I find them. They are so useful for so many things. Sometimes I will just put one on my wrist for no reason. People always tell me I shouldn't do that but I don't know why. Sometimes I just like to mess with it in my hands. You know stretch it , snap it, or wrap it around my sausage-like fingers. Sometimes I like to shoot it at some unsuspecting target like my son. Other times I organize our junk drawer and wrap it around the 127 pens and pencils we have in there.

Rubber bands are versatile and flexible. They come in all sorts of colors. Some are big and thick some are small and thin. Some can be stretched far and some will break easily. They all have their purposes. The one thing that is true about all rubber bands is that they have no power and very little purpose or value until they are stretched. They have no power laying in the bag loose. When I stretch it though, I transfer my strength into the rubber band. It then has the power to move forward in whatever direction I aim it. The rubber band laying loose in the bag has no purpose until I take it out and stretch it around something. It exists and has potential in the bag but is not really fulfilling the purpose it was created for until it is stretched. I believe the same is true for me.

I like comfort. I like to hang out with my friends and people I'm comfortable with. I like my routine and doing the things I know I can do. I seem to think that me being comfortable should be a high priority in living my day to day life. I guess you could say that if I was a rubber band I would prefer to lie loose in the bag. Don't stretch me it makes me uncomfortable. Yet at the same time I profess how I want to grow in Christ and how I want to be used by God. God's power and my value as a tool to be used by Him is limited when I'm living loose in the bag. I'm not living out the purpose that I was created to live when I'm laying loose in the bag.

When I desire and allow God to stretch me I begin to grow. My world suddenly expands. It is no longer all about me. God's power is transferred into my spirit. I now have His power to move forward in the direction God wants to use me. My value for God's kingdom has just multiplied. I can now get closer to living out His purpose for my life. This is often very difficult and quite painful.

At times I have felt like God was going to stretch me until I snapped. God knows better. He created me. He knows how far I can be stretched and in what direction. I need to remain flexible. In one season I was stretched in one direction and the next season in a new direction. He knows the direction He wants to send me. He can choose to send me and use me in ways that I think I'm incapable. He made me versatile even though I can't see it. He created me with a certain color, size, shape and strength. It is a perfect design for the purpose He created me. I might not know or understand His ultimate purpose for my life but this much I know. I wasn't created to live loose in the bag. I need to be stretched. I'm a rubber band man.