We lined up on the risers, all skinned knees and tank tops, toothless grins and ready to show what we had learned that week in Vacation Bible School. Spread out, we were told. Give yourself room. Scoot over. Okay, perfect. The piano began playing and we sang at the top of our little voices. We stretched one arm up and the other down. Then we spread both arms out as far as we could:
Deep and Wide,
Deep and Wide
There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
The next verse is where the choreography got tricky, because we switched it and started with our arms stretched out and then stretched them up and down.
Wide and Deep,
Wide and Deep,
There’s a fountain flowing wide and deep
Then that piano player would begin to play faster and faster with each verse. Scrawny kid arms going every which way trying to keep up. Giggling and singing. Flash bulbs from amused parents snapping Kodak pictures and little kids just learning to love Jesus. Such. Good. Times.
This memory came to mind recently and I wondered about the origin of the simple little song we learned at VBS. A quick Google search found that it might be based on Ephesians 3:17-18
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together
with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is
the love of Christ.
That’s a pretty great thing to be taught as children and reminded of as adults.
About 10 years ago, I attended a Mary Kay event where a successful woman spoke about priorities. She spoke about saying “no” to good so you can say “yes” to great. She talked about her struggle of trying to be everything to everyone. She was in all the clubs, her kids played all the sports, she baked the cookies and drove the carpool, and had her own business, and a house to keep in order and husband to love…you know the story. You most likely live the story or have at some point.
She talked about how she was spread so thin that nothing ever got her full effort or attention. One day she realized she was cheating everybody. Her next statement has stuck with me. She said,
“I would rather be 2 inches wide and 2 miles deep than spread 2 miles wide and only 2 inches deep.”
God’s love is Deep and Wide.
Our free will lets us choose Deep OR Wide.
Believe it or not, it’s okay to choose deep because God has it covered. He has a plan for all of it. We are not called to do all of the things. We are asked to do the thing.
You may be thinking, “Okay, great. What’s the ‘thing’?” What is MY thing? It might be something you already love doing. Something you have a natural talent for or something that brings you joy.
On the other hand, maybe not. Moses was sent to talk to Pharaoh and he had big issues with public speaking. David fought Goliath and he was slightly out gunned. God didn’t call them to do the easy. He asked them to stretch and grow and work. Who knows, maybe that’s the plan for you too?
How will we know? Well, we have to be in the word, be in prayer, be tuned in and we will find it.
Then do it. Do the thing.
Strive to help others “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” just like we learned in bible school.
Embrace the Deep and wide love.
Choose the Wide or deep life.
