Some Assembly Required

Posted On October 3, 2021

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10 ESV

“Life is a gift, albeit unassembled. It comes in pieces, and sometimes it falls to pieces. Part A doesn’t always fit with part B. The struggle is too great for the strength. Inevitably, something seems to be missing. The pieces of life don’t fit. When they don’t, take your problem to Jesus.”

Max Lucado, Before Amen

It’s kind of a running joke in my house that if you have any Lego creations and you want them to stay intact, you better not let me come near them. Apparently, one of my superpowers is the ability to disintegrate a massive Lego project with a single touch. Hours of work can be undone in a mere second. Consequently, although I love puzzles, I avoid Legos. Why spend so much time and effort on something only to have it fall apart?

Life can be the same way sometimes. We may spend years building our life only to have it crumble in a few minutes right before our eyes. A devastating life event can strike when we least expect it and smash everything to pieces. Or maybe it’s not that our life is falling apart, it’s just that the pieces never seem to fit. So what do we do? In these moments we must turn to our Creator and ask for His instructions. When we focus on doing what He tells us to do, we can trust that He will make the pieces of our lives fit together perfectly.

“Don’t worry and ask yourselves, ‘Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?’ Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.”

Matthew 6:31-33 CEV

“For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it; and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again.”

Matthew 16:25 TLB

Jesus said to find our life we must lose it. What does this mean? My Chronological Life Application Study Bible includes this note about Matthew 16:25:

“Real discipleship implies real commitment — pledging our whole existence to his service. If we try to save our physical life from death, pain, or discomfort, we may risk losing eternal life. If we protect ourselves from the pain God calls us to suffer, we begin to die spiritually and emotionally. Our lives turn inward, and we lose our intended purpose. When we give our life in service to Christ, however, we discover the real purpose of living.”

Charles F. Stanley, in 30 Life Principles, reminds us that sometimes God calls us to give something up in order to prepare us to receive something better:

“If there is something in your life that could keep you from trusting and honoring the Lord, it is an idol, and God is not going to allow you to keep it in your grasp. . . . Anything you hold too tightly, you will lose. . . . Therefore, make a decision about what will rule your life once and for all.”

So “losing our life” means being willing to put our wants and desires on the back burner and seek God’s will above everything else. There may by several reasons we feel like the pieces of our life are not coming together the way they should. Maybe we are not following God’s plan for our lives and He is trying to get us back on track. Maybe we are following His plan but the enemy is working against us. Or maybe God is leading us through a period of struggle to develop an aspect of our character. We don’t know. That’s why we need to turn to the One who does. God knows exactly where we are and where He wants us to be. He will guide us if we let Him. When we are confused, anxious, scared, or depressed about the path our life is taking, we must stop and seek His instructions. When we put Christ first and build our life on Him, we will see the pieces come together into something even more beautiful than we could have imagined.

“I designed you before the foundation of the world. I arrange the events of each day to form you into this preconceived pattern. My everlasting Love is at work in every event of your life. On some days your will and Mine flow smoothly together. . . . On other days you feel as if you are swimming upstream, against the current of My purposes. When that happens, stop and seek My Face. . . . Let My Spirit guide you . . . . let circumstances mold you into the one I desire you to be.”

Sarah Young, Life in His Presence

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“There are many people who belong to Christ. And yet, we are one body which is Christ’s. We are all different but we depend on each other.”

Romans 12:5 NLV

Not only does God help us build the pieces of our lives into an amazing creation, we ourselves are pieces in His amazing creation. God could have made us all boringly alike, like the picture above on the left, but thankfully, He didn’t. Rather than creating neat rows of identical humans programmed with exactly the same skills and talents, He chose to create a vibrant tapestry of unique individuals. Like the picture above on the right, we all have different jobs and different characteristics. We each have our own set of gifts that we are meant to share with the world. Because Christ created each one of us to fit perfectly into His masterpiece, we discover our true purpose only through Him.

“When Christ adds you to His body, He fills you with His Spirit, and His Spirit presents you with gifts to complement the larger whole. You might have one gift or several — use them all for Christ!”

The Weekly Gratitude Project

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“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:17 NIV

No matter what career we have, our main job is to love God and love people (Matthew 22:37-39). We are here to grow in faith and lead others to Christ. We do this by letting the Holy Spirit transform us into the image of Christ so that we can serve others in love and humility. When we keep our focus on God, we keep it off of ourselves, and our life becomes much more fulfilling and rewarding. We get to see the amazing ways He is working, in our life and in the lives of those around us. God wants all of His children to help each other find their way home. It’s a long road, and we are not called to walk it alone. Christ leads us, but we are called to help and support each other along the way.

“You may feel that you don’t have much to offer people, but you do. In fact, there are many ways that you can minister to others with the abilities and resources that God has given to you. . . . look for opportunities to shine His light and love into others’ lives. Then watch how God works. Soon you’ll see that it truly is much more blessed to give than to recieve.”

Charles F. Stanley, 30 Life Principles

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT

This life is a gift, but there is some assembly required. When the pieces of our life don’t fit or they seem to be falling apart, let’s trust Christ, our Creator, to help us put them back together. He has prepared a wonderful place for us in paradise, but the road to get there can be long and difficult. I have included a video at the end of this post of Steven Curtis Chapman’s The Long Way Home. This beautiful song points out that a life of faith is often much harder than we imagined, but Christ is our constant companion for the journey.

This week’s Scripture passages tell us that Jesus is the ultimate Master Builder. He made everything, including us, and He has a beautiful plan to renew it all to perfection. Only by building our life on Christ can we find and fulfill our true purpose as a unique part of His glorious masterpiece. So let’s never give up. No matter how many times we feel like everything is falling apart, let’s keep turning to Jesus and trusting Him to guide us. As Steven Curtis Chapman’s song reminds us, “sometimes it feels like we’re going the wrong way, but it’s just a long way home.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 GNT

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12 NIV

References:

• Chronological Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2012.
• “Lego – Steven Curtis Chapman – Long Way Home.” YouTube, uploaded by MySnailEatsPizza, 18 April 2012, https://youtu.be/Lq9UWomEAVg.
• Lucado, Max. Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer. Thomas Nelson, 2014.
• Stanley, Charles F. 30 Life Principles Study Guide: A Study for Growing in Knowledge and Understanding of God. Thomas Nelson, 2008.
• The Weekly Gratitude Project: A Challenge to Journal, Reflect, and Grow a Grateful Heart. Zondervan, 2020.
• Young, Sarah. Life in His Presence: A Jesus Calling Guided Journal. Thomas Nelson, 2020.

Images:

• Lego Bricks featured image by Clovis Cheminot from Pixabay
• Lego Pieces image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
• Lego House image by Here and now, unfortunately, ends my journey on Pixabay from Pixabay
• Identical Lego People image by Matthias Wewering from Pixabay
• Lego Crowd image by Matthias Wewering from Pixabay
• Lego Construction Worker image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay
• Lego Photographer image by Sandra Gabriel from Pixabay
• Lego Office Worker image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay
• Lego Firefighter image by eroyka from Pixabay
• Lego Chef image by karvaskalkki30 from Pixabay
• Lego Truck Driver image by Lynn K from Pixabay
• Lego Castle image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
• Lego Flowers Image by Tomasz Mikołajczyk from Pixabay