Please Let Me Out of That Box

 

 

 Have you ever seen the movie Toy Story 2? Throughout the storyline there is a toy called Stinky Pete the Prospector. According to what the other characters know, he has never been brought out of the original packaging he was purchased in. Because of this he has become a precious collectors item that can be sold for a large sum. But the Prospector has also become embittered and resentful from all of the years spent in that box. At one point toward the end of the movie, it is suddenly found out that the Prospector has been sneaking out of his box to perform sneaky tasks that will imprison the other characters. And this story brings me to my favorite line of that movie. The moment the Prospector is found out there is a collective gasp from the group and Woody cries out.

 

“GASP! YOU’RE OUTTA YOUR BOX!”

So many times in the last two years I feel like I have looked at God, gasped, and shouted out “you’re outta your box”. And He has chuckled and nodded yes. When He provides the money it takes to go on the World Race, I gasp. When I hear witness of the blind seeing and the dead rising, I gasp. When His Holy Spirit actually wants to meet me and let me experience Him, I gasp. When I come to G42 expecting to learn and I get to soak in all of His goodness without the ability to use words, I gasp. The labels I have placed on God have been demolished as I get closer to Him.

As His labels have fallen off, so have mine! I can’t tell you how many times in my life I have had people call me ‘spiritual’, ‘deep’, ‘caring’, and ‘cute’. These are not bad labels. The people who gave them were giving them because they like me and wanted me to know it. But those words have put a covering on me. They have limited me to being an introverted, nice, sweet, girl who wants peace in all situations.

 

None of those things are bad, in and of themselves. I AM spiritual. I AM nice. I AM sweet. I DO want peace. And I AM deep (I mean, my goodness, have you ever had a conversation with me).

 

But I, Annie Rose Taylor, have something to declare! I have a freakin’ LION inside of me getting ready to roar. The strength and size of my spirit is not to be underestimated. And I’m done with boxing myself and others into what I can comprehend.

Sometimes, no, a lot of times, I laugh at jokes that are inappropriate. If you joke with me and I don’t think it’s funny, I’m learning not to laugh. There is a truth residing inside of me that doesn’t care about how easily offended you are, and I am learning how to speak it (from the deepest place of love). I love to go out on the town and dance the night away. I’m learning how to fight in order to have true peace. I am me.

So would you please stop labelling me? Would please remove that box that you have placed around me and just let me be me? Maybe I’ll surprise you, or maybe not. Either way, It’s much more fun to know someone for who they really are anyway.

This week in classes at G42 I was finally released. We were speaking life to each other at the beginning. And it happened a little something like this…. Jenny Telfer looks across the room at me and speaks the words that I have fought for years to be true in my life.

“Annie Rose, you are more YOU than I have ever seen you be, even in the short time I’ve known you. You are you and it is beautiful and strong!”

That’s it. That’s all that was spoken. But then Herman Haan recognizes that something has just happened that none of our natural eyes could see. He calls me to the front and speaks about a covering that has been on me. He asks Jenny to come up and help him remove that covering. So they did. Watch out world, Annie Rose doesn’t have to submit to labels any longer. She now knows her identity as a daughter of the King and will live from THAT place of joy and rest and peace. There is a wildness that has been released and cannot be contained by other’s (or even my own) thoughts or labels or boxes.

I’m still learning how to live outside of that box, but I’m loving every minute of it!

So if I could ask you to do anything in response to what you have read, it is this. Please, please, please let that box be demolished. It could be a box on your view of God. Let it be broken. It could be a box on your family and how much they will never change. Punch a hole through that one. It could be a box on who you are as a person. Try something new and test those boundaries. 

It won’t be easy. Even in the last 2 days I have struggled even deeper in identity issues. I’ve wanted to submit again to other’s opinions of me. But it’s just because I’m free and I am better able to recognize when that label hits. I WON’T stop being me! I can’t. I am me, and I have been released. And you can be you!

From this day on may those labels fall so that each one of us can FINALLY be who and what we were DESIGNED to be!