A World of Bobs

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7

The children’s show “Bob the Builder” went off air in 2010, but it still remains popular through the magic of Netflix.  The show usually revolves around some dilemma that has happened previously that Bob is called to help with, or a problem that one of Bob’s team of trucks, tractors and backhoes have caused themselves.  Bob always comes to the rescue with the construction equipment-rallying cry of “Can we fix it? Yes we can!”  No problem too big or too small can’t be fixed in twenty-one minutes.

Twenty-one minutes or less.  That’s the average television show’s time without commercials.  Family rifts, illnesses, and crimes can be solved in that time.  But for us, we don’t have the benefit of time lapse or suspended disbelief.  We have real life, with real hurts, real people and real messes.  And yet, we still have the “Bob” mentality that somehow we can fix it, yes we can!

There is a certain arrogance about us that often refuses to bring our troubles to the Lord.  Whether it is conscious or not, often we try to handle the situation ourselves before we hand it over to God in a fit of desperation.  Why is God and prayer so often our last resort?  Jesus modeled a deeply prayerful life for us. In fact, one of the last things that Jesus did on earth was pray “father forgive them for they know not what they do”. 

Without prayer, we send God the message of either “I can handle this” or equally wrong the message of “you don’t have time for this.”  The truth is no, we cannot handle this life without God’s guiding presence and none of our problems are too small or menial for him to give attention to.  Jesus wants to be Lord of our Lives, not just lord of our Sundays. He wants all of our good times and our bad times. He wants our laughter and our tears, our hurts and hang-ups.  He wants them all because we are his children and he loves us. Period. And sometimes the answers to our prayers are hard and sometimes they take a long time coming but in the meantime, we can trust in him knowing that in His time we will find the the answers we need.

Can he fix it? Yes he can!

Prayer: Father forgive me when I forget you.  Help me to seek you through petition and prayer everyday knowing that no one loves us more than you. Amen.