What's in the Basket?

[00:00:09] A while back, I disabled the seat belt warning chime in my car. Now, don't turn me in. Before you say anything, I had this completely reasonable explanation. [00:00:18] We have a driveway that's pretty steep. And so before I come down the driveway, I usually stop, get out of my car, check the mail. And then my car the whole time would be, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Almost like I'm trying to attempt something dangerous. I was just getting the mail. I'm fine. So I looked up how to disable it, and just after a couple minutes, I was done. I did it just to the front seats. But then recently, a family member started riding with us. And they, you know, they're. They're a little, what I would say, relaxed about the whole seatbelt thing. And so the chime would go off repeatedly. And it was disruptive. And it was louder than I remembered. So I looked up. How do you turn off the rear ones, too? See, the car was designed to tell me when something's wrong. And I spent actual time and energy making sure I could not hear it warning me anymore. Why? Because it was inconvenient. I think about that spiritually a lot. I think because God puts things in us that are designed to signal, that push us towards people who need help, push us towards people who are in situations where our light could actually make a difference. And sometimes that feeling goes off at an inconvenient moment. We don't abandon the kingdom. We just get really good at not hearing the warning or the signal anymore. [00:01:30] So we put the basket down and we stop asking what's under it. [00:01:33] Jesus gets at this. In Matthew 5, verses 15 and 16, he says, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and they glorify your Father who's in heaven. Nobody lights a lamp so they can cover it. That would be dumb, right? The whole point of the lamp is to give light. So why does it end up under a basket? [00:01:59] Not because the light stopped working, but because something got in the way. So the question is, what's in your basket? What's been quietly covering what God put in you? For a lot of us, I don't think it's a dramatic story. [00:02:11] It's not that we've been living in rebellion or running from God. The basket often is more subtle. Sometimes it's comfort. I mean, we've arranged our lives so neatly around our own preferences, that there's no room for anything that might cost us something. [00:02:25] Sometimes it's fear. What if I say something wrong? What if I'm not qualified for this? Sometimes it's waiting. Waiting until we feel more ready, more confident, more spiritual. And Jesus is standing there saying, the lamp is already lit. You've already got everything you need. I don't need you to have it all figured out. I just need you to stop waiting. So today, I just want to ask you one honest question. [00:02:48] What's the basket? You don't have to have a dramatic answer. You don't have to have a fix for it all today. But naming it is the first step in lifting it. Because God doesn't need you to manufacture the light. He just needs you to take the basket off. Have a great day. We'll see you back here soon.