To Build a Life

The young boys in my preschool Sunday School class love building with the wooden blocks. Most Sundays they will bypass every other activity and head straight to the block shelf. However, sometimes in their eagerness to get their structures long enough or high enough (or to get to the blocks before anyone else), they fail to build a good strong foundation or they miss an important connecting block. Then, to their dismay, their structures will come crashing down. At other times, their structures may survive, but they may lean precariously or look entirely different from what the children intended. Then the church they were building may become a parking lot or the airport may become the runway.

Sometimes I’ve offered suggestions when I noticed a structure destined to fall, but my suggestions were refused. I would helplessly watch as blocks eventually tumbled down. “If only they would listen,” I thought. But then it occurred to me how often I act the same way when it comes to life in general. We can be just like these kids when it comes to the way we “build our lives.”

• How many times are we so determined with what we’re set out to do that we just rush past other opportunities?

 

• How many times are we so sure that we know what we’re doing that we tackle it without seeking God’s guidance? With our limited vision, we may fail to see something else that we should do instead.

 

• How many times, after we’ve done things our way, do we look at our lives and not like the way it looks? Perhaps we’ve become something we don’t really want to be.

 

• How many times have we refused to listen to others who try to help, or failed to follow God’s instructions in the Bible, because we wanted to do it our way? Then, we later watched as everything tumbled down around us.

 

Oftentimes, it is not until everything is crumbled at our feet that we will stop trying to do it our way and look for help. God’s Word is clear that there is only one way to build a life – “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:17). Jesus, Himself, taught the importance of building our lives on a solid relationship with Christ. Such a life is compared to a house built on a rock which can weather the rains, floods, and winds. By contrast, a life not built on this foundation is compared to a house built on the sand which will fall when the storms come (see Matthew 7:24-27).

Occasionally, I’ve watched my preschoolers listen to suggestions and make changes as they built their block structures. I have watched them contribute ideas, help each other, and work together to create something bigger and better than what any one child had imagined. I smile to myself. This is the way it is supposed to be! And isn’t this the way we are supposed to build, too? “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Peter reminds us, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Stones as used in this passage refer to those that are shaped and ready to use in construction. God is working in us to build us up that we, in turn, can present ourselves in service and obedience to Him. So as God works in us, we work to build up His kingdom, and in the process we find life – life as God intended.