Elizabeth vs The printer

It’s been a while but I am back!

Right, let’s start!

The other day I prayed that when I got to work, there would be nobody at the printer and I’d be able to print 30 copies of 14 pages in peace. So when I got to work, I acted in faith (or so I thought) and began to copy but instead of typing ’30’ into the number of copies section, I typed ’10’. I thought ‘just incase someone walks in to use the printer at least I won’t be there for  too long.’ Anyway, I printed my 10 copies and low and behold, nobody came; I thought okay, let me just do the rest then since it was so quick. This next bit is all fact, I typed ’20’ into the number of copies and please guess what happened?

The printer JAMMED!!! As in, full on ‘there is paper stuck in a nook and cranny that only God can deliver it from!’ I had the proverbial egg on my face, it took me 20 minutes to try and get it working again and in all that time not a single soul came in (for added context, I’m a primary school teacher, there is always a rush for the printer in the morning). By the 25th minute, another member of staff came in and all I could think was ‘why didn’t you just have faith?’ If I had behaved as if I believed that whatever I ask from my heavenly Father, He is able to give me, I would not have been on my knees at 8.30 in the morning pulling paper out of the most awkward compartment of a printer. I did what we all do sometimes, I gave God room to fail. The thing is, even if I prayed and there was a long line for the printer, it doesn’t mean God failed. God has a strategy and plan for every single aspect of our day, it could have been in standing in that queue that I encouraged someone (teachers need a lot of that) or someone encouraged me. I could have had time to be still, anything, but the time would not have been wasted. In my short time as a printer technician, I realised that I’d much rather trust that God has heard me and act in boldness than waste quality time being timid. Let’s stop giving God ‘get out of jail free’ cards, He doesn’t need them. Let’s stop seeing God as our personal errand boy, He is not our mate. Our part is to pray and believe, we don’t have to help God out in any way because as I hope you’ve gathered, it makes things worse rather than better (ask Rebecca and Jacob – Genesis 27).

By the way, incase you were wondering, I never got the printer unjammed and had to go all the way to the other side of the school to do my final copies, I ended up leaving two pages off which I then had to copy separately and add on later. I hope this teaches you that not trusting God is a massive waste of time and effort because I’ve certainly learnt!