Burning Holes In Your Pocket

When I was in my early twenties, I heard a sermon that nearly made me walk out of the service.

Not because I was mad but because God had just read my mail.

The pastor was preaching about David picking up five stones to face Goliath. Then he asked the congregation:

“I wonder who in here today has rocks in your pocket? God is waiting for you to use them.”

I kid you not, in my pocket was a folded-up piece of paper.

Being a writer had been a dream of mine for years. That morning, I had finally decided to take some steps toward it. Before church, I started writing.

When it was time to head to church, I folded the paper up and stuck it in the pocket of my khakis.

So when the pastor said, “I wonder who in here today has rocks in their pocket,” I knew exactly what God was saying to me.

Use what I gave you.

Sling it.

Don’t let it stay in your pocket.

My brain is unusual. I go down some pretty niche rabbit holes.

Lately, I’ve been digging into what famous and historical people had in their pockets when they died. I know, morbid right?

But I wanted to know what did they carry with them all the way to the end.

Lyndon B. Johnson died carrying a Vicks inhaler and a pack of Wrigley’s Doublemint gum. He also had Winston cigarettes and a lighter.

He had severe heart disease and continued smoking despite his doctors’ warnings.

There’s something sobering about the possibility that a man could carry in his pocket something that was slowly killing him.

Frank Sinatra. Old Blue Eyes himself.

If he hadn’t died in a hospital gown, he likely would have died with a roll of dimes in his pocket.

In 1963, Sinatra’s son was kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded that Sinatra communicate with them through payphones.

One time he ran out of change during the crisis and panicked. After that, he carried a roll of dimes with him for the rest of his life.

Just in case.

After his death, his daughter placed the roll of dimes in his pocket one last time.

Abraham Lincoln. Old Honest Abe.

One of the things found in his wallet after his assassination really resonated with me.

In his pocket was eight newspaper clippings.

They were articles praising Lincoln, his presidency, and his policies.

Think about that.

Abraham Lincoln carried encouragement in his pocket.

The President needed reminders that he was doing something worthwhile while the country around him was trying to tear him apart. While everyone questioned him and drug his name through the mud, he kept a reminder in his pocket that some people actually thought he was doing a good job.

He carried messages that could hold him together when everything else was trying to break him.

Not just rocks.

Something that gave him stones, so to speak.

I wonder if we need to become more intentional about what we carry because we live in a world that is constantly trying to take the rocks out of our pocket.

Trying to kill our encouragement.

Assassinate our assignment.

Hell wants to burn a hole in your pocket so that what God put there falls out before you ever get the chance to use it.

That’s why I love the idea of noise-canceling headphones.

They don’t actually make the noise disappear.

Tiny microphones listen to the noise around you, and the headphones create another sound wave that counters it.

The noise is still there.

It is simply being answered.

Maybe that’s part of what God does with the fearful thoughts that come into our minds.

He doesn’t always make the thought disappear.

Sometimes He answers it.

“You’re alone.”

“I will never leave you.”

“You’re not enough.”

“My grace is sufficient.”

“There’s no hope.”

“With God all things are possible.”

The enemy shouts.

God answers.

Victory isn’t always the absence of another voice. Sometimes victory is learning which voice was designed to cancel the other.

That’s why we have to read our Bibles.

Meditate on His Word.

Hold on to what is good.

Answer accusations with Scripture.

Carry truth with you.

Because you never know when you’re going to need what’s in your pocket.

What has God already put in your pocket?

The idea you’ve been afraid to pursue.

The gift you’ve been afraid to use.

The Scripture you need to remember.

The encouragement you need to carry.

The calling you’ve been sitting on.

The stone you’ve been saving.

Don’t let it stay in your pocket.

David picked them up.

He put one in the sling.

And he let it fly.

God has already put something in your hands.

Now sling it.

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