So there I was arriving at church yesterday getting ready to set up everything like every church planting pastor does. I arrived about 45 minutes before anyone else arrived. Just as usual I would load up my dolly and do some preparation downstairs, before taking the dolly in the elevator to finish all the preparations that we have upstairs. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed strange or different. I had done this hundreds of times before! I was expecting anything to happen. I would get in, push the button and about 10 seconds later arrive at the next floor and push the dolly out.
At the top of my now 8 second ascent, the elevator started vigorously jolting. At this point in my life, I did no feel my life was in danger. I did not feel that I had said my last goodbyes, or that I had seen my life flash before my eyes. It was almost as though I was expecting at some point in my life to be trapped in an elevator. After the jolting stopped, so did the elevator, however something different happened that had never happened before. The door did not open. So like anyone in this situation, I decided to try to open the door with my brute strength. On my first attempt I realized that I was only about 2 feet away from the very top. I supposed that was better than being stuck right in the middle of both levels.
On my second attempt I tried with all my might to open the door, but to no avail. The apparently had some safety feature that only allowed it to open about 6 inches, either that or I was significantly weaker than I thought. At this point I was unsure what to do. Do I call 911? It isn’t exactly an emergency! Do I call the owner of the building we are renting? I am not sure what he could really do anyway! Do I call my wife? Should I Let her have undo stress and let her worry about her beloved husband?
So I decided to pray and not freak out. The funny thing is I was not scared even remotely. It was kind of one of those things, that I kind of just expected to happen at some time in my life. So I remained calm. I then asked the Lord for wisdom as far as which direction to go. I suppose it was a little uncomfortable in there as elevators are not meant to be long term stays. The elevator was getting a little warm now as it was around 7 minutes into my thought process of what I was going to do.
Finally it hit me what I should do. I had already hit all the buttons on the panel. Floor 1, floor 2, open door, close door, and cancel. At last, I said I might as well push this button. “In Emergency Push.” So I did. Immediately, I was drawn into a musical surround sound in the elevator of hold music! I thought this was rather odd, but chose to wait. Of course I had no choice. As I was listening to the music just standing there, finally a voice! “We thank you for your patience all of your service representatives are currently busy….” I really did not feel like I had a choice but to be patient.
At this point I was thinking, I cannot wait for the congregation to come in the building. This will be one for the memory books! I will preach from the elevator. Maybe the whole congregation can huddle around the hallway and I can preach through the door! This was not ideal, but I figured, they came to hear preaching, they will get preaching. Now it may be through the confusion of firefighters and EMT trying to rescue the poor trapped pastor, but I though well it could be worse.
At this point I started to think about a spiritual lesson, that kind of hit me square in the face. The spiritual lesson was this… How often we turn to God only when we have no where else to turn. It is like there is a built in “spiritual button” that says, “In case of a life emergency push to access God.” I often see myself doing just this.
Why do I need God to have an effect in my life, when I can do so many things myself. I will call on God when I am at a last ditch effort. “In Case of Emergency Push.” How often have I seen this happen in my life! I rely on my own strengths, and do not rely on God. While I had time to think in the elevator, my mind was drawn to a passage of Scripture that we had been recently talking about in our Mid-Week Bible Study. 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
God is not looking for strong people! We already know who we are! God is looking for weak people. This is a little bit harder to find. Why because weak people are not willing to admit their weaknesses! This verse teaches us that God’s grace is sufficient, but only when we recognize that we need His strength. This is what True grace is, God’s strength covering our weakness!
God does not want us to rely on Him just when we absolutely have no other option. God did not give us a button only in case of emergencies. Scripture teaches us to cast ALL of our cares on Him! Everyone, even the ones we fill like we can handle ourselves. He wants us to have absolute and complete dependency on Him. God does not just want to be a part of our life when we want Him to be a part. This is a common misconception of Christians and I believe as time moves on more and more Christians tend to have less of dependency on God.
As you probably have figured out by now, I am obviously no longer in the elevator. After waiting and waiting through this endless music and voice prompts that said, “thank you for your patience” the elevator emergency call button service finally sent me to some type of voice mail. I am certainly at this point, absolutely glad that this situation of me being stuck in a elevator was not a super emergency. I was not exactly sure what to say on the voice mail. “Hi, my name is Jason and I am stuck in an elevator. Can you please get me out of here, I have to preach here in about 30 minutes!”
For some unknown reason, the elevator started sinking down to the first floor. When the elevator stopped, nothing happened. At this point I was somewhat relieved again to think, that was a whole lot better than the elevator just dropping to the first floor. The door still closed, I was hoping well maybe something will just happen. I hit the Emergency Call Button one more time, just to be reunited with the wonderful music. This certainly put a whole new twist on elevator music! No matter who I looked at elevator music, I still do not like it!
Finally, after about 4 more minutes of me being now stuck on the first floor, the door magically opened. I was not greeted by anyone, there was not great reuniting, just a story that I thought was rather funny as after I got out of being stuck in an elevator. I suppose this situation taught me a few things, but the most important it taught me, was to always rely on God. Don’t wait for the absolute emergency in your life, cast all of your care on Him…today. No matter how much you think you can handle it, that is not the point. The point is God is genuinely concerned for you, and all your weaknesses, needs, and even wants.
For more information on Carbon Valley Bible Church please go to cvbiblechurch.com or call 303-736-9959
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