Psalm 111:10 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow
His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever.
Once I helped a friend assemble a movie
display at a theater. This was not a simple display where he and I could just
open the box and put the display on the wall. It was a complicated display that
was nearly as tall as I am and twice as long. It had very complicated
instructions.
We spent three hours inserting Tab A
into Slot B while attaching Strap C to Holder D. It was obvious that whoever
designed the display was a brilliant engineer with a flair for thinking of ways
to make cardboard look like a whole city block. But the designer clearly did
not know how to write instructions in plain English that non-engineers could
understand. It took quite a while to figure out the difference between Tab A
and Tab J and Holder D and Holder Z. But piece by piece we assembled the
display. Following the directions exactly, one step at a time, we finally got
the project done. It looked amazing when it was finished.
Life is a lot like building a
complicated display. We do not just take life out of a box and instantly
have good marriages, healthy families, meaningful careers, or vibrant
spirituality. In order to make life work, a lot of things have to be done in
the correct order and at the right time. We need a set of directions for how to
get through life. If we skip a step in those instructions, or try to take a
short cut, life ends up lopsided.
Fortunately, there is a set of
instructions for life. It is called the Bible. Many people think the Bible is
out of date and no longer relevant to our post-modern culture. They clearly
have not read the Bible carefully. The stories in the Bible reveal people
dealing with many of the very same problems that we hear about daily. In the
Bible we can find stories of people facing financial issues, family problems,
war, crime, and corrupt governments. We can find stories of believers making
right choices, as well as believers making terrible choices. The Bible is full
of stories about how people dealt with real life issues. It also contains a lot
of helpful advice about how we can deal with our own issues. Though life
is complicated, if we follow the instructions God gave us, like the
movie display my friend and I assembled, life can end up looking good when we
get to the end.
Lord,
help us to study the Bible more and follow Your directions for life. Amen.
This post is an excerpt from the book, The
Heavenly Mundane: Daily Devotions from Ordinary Experiences. Filled with stories of how God spoke in
big ways through small events, the book will encourage people to look for God
in the mundane things of life. Great for both personal use and to give as a
gift to friend, either the print version or the e-book version may be purchased
at this link:
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