Ceilings

 November 21, 2021

In his sermon this morning, pastor Joe asked a question that has been haunting me all day. “What would it be like if we didn’t see life with a ceiling?” While I don’t believe it is helpful to tell kids they can become anything they want or do anything they put their mind to (after all, we are finite human beings, and do have limitations. The original sin remember, was “I will be like God.”), pastor’s question deserves an answer.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know I have put a ceiling on life more times than I care to recall. I’ve prayed healing for someone as long as their illness wasn’t something like cancer. I pray confidently for the little stuff I expect to happen anyway, but become more guarded when it’s the big stuff. It took me a long time in life to realize I didn’t have to protect God’s reputation. I’ve learned to pray for healing, no matter what. My often poor track record here doesn’t keep me from praying. While God certainly teaches us things in our pain that we cannot or will not learn in our pleasures, I cannot believe that it is God’s will for us to be sick.

Jesus himself taught us to pray, “Thy will be done,” in part, because God’s will isn’t done on earth as it is in heaven. So I keep praying. But I still tend to put a ceiling on my prayers. I figure out what I consider “reasonable,” and shape my prayers accordingly.

So I’m asking again, “Why the ceiling?” And, “What might my life, and the life of those around me be like if I removed the ceiling?” St. Paul said, “[he] is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20). If God is able above what we can imagine, there is no reason for me to place a ceiling on my prayers, especially those like the one he prayed just before he penned those words:

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:14, 16-19 

Our Heavenly Father can do it…and more!