A Temple to the Toilet Paper Gods
Kittye Mosimann April 24,2020
“He was big. Really, really big.” That’s all my friend could tell me about the man. I asked her if he was young or older, as if knowing that detail would somehow make what she had just told me more comprehensible, but all she could tell me was that he was big. She was understandably still somewhat in shock over what had happened, as was I after she told me.
Jane (This is her real name, I didn’t have to change it for anonymity!) was picking up a few items at the store for an elderly friend that she helps out. Toilet paper was on the list, and surprisingly, the store had some on the shelves, so Jane picked up two packages, which was the store’s limit per customer. Headed to the checkout line, her way was suddenly blocked. Blocked by that really, really big man. In all fairness, probably many men appear big to five- foot-two-in-heels Jane, but it seems that there was a bigness about this man that had nothing to do with height. Sometimes, the size we perceive something or someone to be has more to do with their demeanor and their intent than it does with their actual stature. But it wasn’t just his size that alarmed her, it was what he did next. Looking down on her coldly, he simply reached out and took one of the packages of toilet paper from her arms, then turned and quickly walked away. Wordlessly. Confidently.
Needless to say, Jane was stuck in her tracks. Raised in the south, hospitality is her middle name. She’s a grateful , truly life-saved, born-again Christian, and scripture is the soundtrack playing in the background of her life’s events. But this event was novel for her. We’ve all been there, I think. We have the knowledge, and we have the training, and we have the weapons, but we get ambushed by a situation that occurs in the midst of normal life routine that leaves us standing stock-still, because what happens is unprecedented in the way we ourselves think.
Later, talking about it with compassionate friends, we all conjectured what the only appropriate response would have been. Jane, like I would have, realized it just a few minutes too late.
Sixty-something (I’m not telling), five-foot-and-a-little, someone’s-grandma Jane, should have dropped everything else in her arms - groceries, purse, whatever- and run that really, really big man down. I can see her in my mind’s eye; grey ponytail flying, arms pumping, dodging endcaps in the grocery store, vaulting over canned good displays on the edges of the aisles, breathless but unrelenting, until she caught up with him. And then, tapping him on the shoulder, as he turns to face her... narrow-eyed, fists clenched, and bullyish in posture..... Panting, she thrusts the second package of Charmin into his hands...“Here! Jesus loves you.” And she turns and walks away. (See Matt. 5:38-42)
It’s a strange thing I keep visualizing. But really, it’s a stranger event that precipitated the vision. Unprecedented for my friend, Jane, or for me. The newscasters keep saying that what we are experiencing right now is an “unprecedented event”, but I’m not so sure.
For some reason, I’ve had a hard time getting the image of Jane and the really, really big man out of my mind. It provoked me, and being provoked reminded me of Paul as he toured Athens and spoke with the Areopagus. Luke records, “Now while Paul waited...at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to
idols.” (Acts 17:16). I know the feeling well. You see, as Paul walked through Athens, he saw all of the temples for the gods the Athenians worshipped. According to the Greeks, there were gods for everything; one for this, another for that...whatever you lacked, there was a god to worship in the hope that your lack would be filled. Their gods even had a god. And if you didn’t know exactly what it was you lacked, but you felt a need, there was an altar for that too. Paul was stuck in his tracks before the altar inscribed, “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”.
Apparently, the Athenians weren’t sure what they needed from this particular god, but they were aware that they had an unresolved need. I think Paul realized that behind every idol worshipped there was a spirit that existed, calling out to be worshipped and pointing to an area

of lack in the Athenians’ lives. Paul’s doxology to them was brilliant: “... the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” (Acts 17:23-25)
The times we are in right now aren’t really so unprecedented. From the moment we are born, we are born in need. A baby’s first cry is that expression that we are not born into this world self-sufficient, but we are a creation comprised of needs and wants. That first cry is a calling out to receive the breath in our lungs, to fill the hunger in our bellies, and to warm us from the cold. Over time and as we “mature”, the needs don’t go away. Instead, it becomes harder to discern which needs are real, and which are simply a perceived area of lack. Like the Athenians, we are prone to believe that there are a myriad of idols that can fulfill our needs: money, jobs, possessions, popularity, government, toilet paper...
One thing about spirits is that they gain power through the attention we give them. Think about the spirit of fear Paul wrote about in his letter to Timothy, for example. The more we focus on our fear, the bigger it begins to appear, no matter what it is driving that fear. And really, isn’t lack what’s behind that spirit too? We fear because we perceive that there’s not enough. Not enough protection, not enough healing, not enough provision, not enough goodness, not enough toilet paper. The more we focus on it, the more that area of lack begins to look like that really, really big man.
But as Paul pointed out, our God is not a god of lack; He is the God of abundance. He is not only abundant in patience, mercy and in grace (Ps. 86:15), He is also our abundant Provider, Healer and Protector. While we should not expect Him to provide everything we think we need from our earthly perspective (“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:9)), we can be joyfully expectant that He will abundantly provide for every real area of need, because He alone, as the One who created us, knows what we really need.
Perhaps you just got a mental picture, as I did, of God raining down toilet paper out of the sky as He did when He provided the manna from heaven for the Israelites. I could imagine some, like that really big man, gathering up that harvest and hoarding it, building a temple of toilet paper in his closet to appease that god of lack. It made me laugh, because my mind can so quickly slip away from what Isaiah said and land back in the natural realm. As the Creator of creativity, God can and does provide for our needs in ways that are so creative and unexpected that they take us by surprise. Remember Elijah and the ravens -ravens!- that brought him the food that sustained him in the widerness? I’m pretty sure Elijah did not pray, “Lord, please send some ravens to bring me food.”, but our God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...”. And what exactly is that ‘power that works in us’? According to Paul in 1 Cor. 1:18, it is “the message of the cross” that we believe; our faith in the cross and the ressurrection that tells us Who our God is and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ. If our God gave us His beloved and only begotten Son, why would He withhold anything else from us?
Relax. Breathe. Jesus has already provided everything we need. And He is here to exceedingly abundantly “supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19)
”... those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” (Ps. 34:10)
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in
all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” (2Cor. 9:8)