The Infamous Pink Slip

I don't know that people use this term any more; but do you remember what it meant when you received a "pink slip" from your employer?

"You're fired!!!"

You have officially been relieved of your duties. Period.

I recently did a devotional for our MOPS Steering Team and one of my team (Jonnie!) asked if I would please write about it. She kept writing "Pink Slipping!" on her FB profile and people kept asking her what in the world that meant. :)

At the meeting I passed around slips of pink paper to everyone. I told them they were officially relieved of their duties. Relieved of the stress. Relieved of the worry. Relieved of the lack of sleep over their many jobs. Fired, if you will. Then I explained:

Our church has just opened the doors of it's brand new building. We have been meeting in a high school since it's conception and it is awesome to now be in our own building. We can meet when we want; have extra programs, etc. One of the monumental new things that we were able to do now was to have baptisms in our own baptistry!! In the past we have used other church's facilities, a local pool or rented a portable hot tub to do them out in a parking lot somewhere.

My children have literally NEVER had the opportunity to see a baptism because each time our church had scheduled one we have been out of town. As the service progressed and I realized that they were going to do the baptism in our service. I started nudging my husband, "Should we go get the kids?!" He, much more laid back than I, said no. We should wait until the next time so we could talk to them a bit about it first before they watched it.

As individuals publicly professed Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord and were baptized; I was moved to tears. Especially because there were several children being baptized. My joyful tears progressed into tears of guilt that my children truly had no idea what baptism is all about. What a horrible mom I was, I thought. I began to pray that my own children would have a desire to publicly follow Christ in Baptism.

By the time we got home; I had come up with 101 ways to incorporate baptism into our conversations, etc. (o.k. maybe not 101....) They were not interested AT ALL. I was crushed. As I cleaned up the dishes from lunch it dawned on me that it was not MY JOB to stir their hearts into wanting to identify publicly with the Lord. Yes, I can walk by example and present truth to them; but ultimately, they need to come to that place on their own as the Holy Spirit stirs it up within them. I felt God was handing me a pink slip and asking me to resign this task to Him.

How many times do I do this? Strive, when I need to just wait on the Lord.

How often do I allow myself to get worked up over a situation that I have no control (at all) over? Instead of resting in Him. Trusting that He has my good in mind and is in control?

He brought me to Matthew 6:25-34:
²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Psalm 37:7 "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him..."

So what is it that you need to be relieved from? What does your "pink slip" represent? The sale of a house? A biopsy? The faith of your children? The faith of your husband? We ALL have things to release - to hand the "pink slip" to-we need to cast those cares before Him and allow Him to work. (And yes; sometimes that means we need to step out of the way...)

I encouraged the women to place the pink slip into their Bibles; to allow it to be a reminder to release our cares, stresses, and worries to the Lord; after all, it's not our job!

Waiting on Him,

Shanda