15
Sep '18
When it’s a Lego Life
15
Sep '18
I remember when my nephew was younger, he was very much into Lego’s. He’d so badly want a Star Wars ship, a Batman car, or any other various Lego set. The picture on the box looked so cool and he was excited to have this item, but once it was brought home, and the box was opened, it surely didn’t look like the picture on the box! As the little plastic packages inside would come out of the box one by one, there instead of a ship or a car were a bunch of little block pieces in bags – and when I say a bunch, I mean no less than 1000 pieces!! For fun, I researched and found the largest Lego set of all time:
Source: Lego. It’s 7,541 pieces. That’s the number of Lego bricks in the newly updated Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon set that Lego announced today. August 31, 2017
Have you ever felt like you’re in 7,541 pieces? I know I have. I think we’ve all most likely felt this way at a time in our lives. We’re not sure which pieces fit where and we find that instead of a Batman car, we’re 7,541 pieces spread out on the kitchen table waiting to be put together. I know by looking at the box what the end result should be, but looking at all of those pieces, we can feel discouraged and broken. Do we expect for those pieces to be put together quickly? (Yep!) Do we realize that when we start working on those pieces, that we were quite possibly off on our timing estimate, and maybe it’s going to take a bit longer than we expected? (Yep!) Do we ever feel like giving up? Like these pieces will never get put together correctly, and it’s taking forever anyway, so why even bother trying anymore. (Yep, yep!) Maybe at this point we wish we’d have just bought the car already put together and ready to go!! (But we didn’t – that’s not how it works!) So, we must ask ourselves – are we willing to move forward even when we don’t see the whole picture, but just one piece at a time? A long piece here, a fat piece there, a skinny piece, a red piece, a purple piece. They’re all pieces that fit together perfectly, but we must learn to wait on God to provide these pieces as we need them.
Proverbs 23:26 NLT – “O my son, give Me your heart. May your eyes take delight in following My ways”.
So, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had pieces of our life laying around us and we don’t know what to do with them, and we get discouraged to the point where we allow doubt to creep in. What we have to realize is that God has all of those pieces under control and ready to provide each one when we are ready for it – when we need it. We don’t have a clue what we really need, but He does. We can’t possibly see how these pieces are going to be picked up and put together, but we don’t have to be able to see that to follow His path. God always comes through because He already knows what the Batman car of your life looks like. You may see the picture on the box and want so badly to have all the pieces together immediately so they look like that picture, but by doing that, we miss that time during the process of putting those pieces together where the real purpose is found. It’s not easy, it’s a struggle at times, and trusting God when the pieces are strewn everywhere is sometimes hard for everyone. We are human. We want things to go our way so badly, so we find ourselves quickly moving ahead, while not waiting on God. When we get too far ahead of ourselves and start doing things without consulting God first, we start losing pieces. (Note: Losing pieces is not good). For one, you can never be fully “whole” and “complete” with missing pieces – and those missing pieces end up somewhere they aren’t supposed to be and end up hurting us. Have you ever stepped on a Lego in bare feet? It hurts – and why does it hurt? Because it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and we stumble upon it. See, God has a plan for each and every one of us, and He doesn’t want us to be without pieces – He wants us to be whole in Him with all of the pieces He provides. He wants to give us so much in this life, and when we start going ahead too quickly and start getting anxious and not waiting on Him, our lives start getting put together out of order.
Jeremiah 6:16 NLT – “This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, Godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’”
I know when helping put together Lego’s with my nephew, I’ve put the wrong pieces together before because they appeared to fit, (and I just wanted and hoped that they would fit that way). I wanted to do it my way. Sure, they may fit at the moment and seem to be right for the time, but by not consulting the book that tells me where each piece goes, I later found out that I had to back-track, take things apart, read the instruction book, and try again – when I should’ve read the instruction book in the first place.
Isaiah 30:1-3 NLT – “What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the LORD. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection. You have tried to hide in his shade. But by trusting Pharaoh, you will be humiliated, and by depending on him, you will be disgraced.”
I’ve found myself in that same situation in life by not consulting God with what comes next in my life, and trusting someone else (or even myself) for guidance. God should be who I turn to FIRST to find out which piece of my life goes where, rather than me just snapping together what feels right at the moment, and then later asking God why it didn’t fit (or even worse, asking God to make it fit when it clearly doesn’t). By asking God for my next steps FIRST, I can be assured that the pieces of my life will fit together the way they are supposed to and I won’t have a delay by having to back-track and try again.
King David, when teaching his young son Solomon about spiritual life spoke/wrote these words:
Psalm 119:97-98 NLT – “Oh, how I love Your instructions! I think about them all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.” Psalm 119:165 NLT – “Those who love Your instructions have great peace and do not stumble.”
So, when we don’t follow the Lord’s instruction, we often find ourselves back-tracking (not fun), and it takes longer for us to get to our full potential and purpose in life. I think it’s in these times that we learn to have patience, learn to read the instruction guide (listen to God! Read His word!), and learn how to move ahead again with the pieces in the right place and in the right order as He guides. Yep – learning the same lessons over and over until we get it right are exhausting at times – but nonetheless necessary. Once we get it right by trusting in God, we can be confident that the pieces of our lives are in the right place and in the right order.
God provides us with the needed pieces as we walk in His path trusting Him solely. It’s at this time we’ll end up finding the purpose that He has for our life. Instead of being 7,541 pieces strewn across the kitchen table of life, we’ll more closely resemble the image we see on the front of the box, which more closely resembles the image and purpose in which God sees us. Sure, there may be a few pieces still missing along the way that we’ve lost in the past, or a few pieces may still fall off that we have to pick up and put back together again, but we’ll surely look much more like a complete, put together Batman car than we’ll look like little individual plastic blocks.
God will guide your purpose, establish provision, and allow you to reach your potential if you’ll just allow Him to build you piece by piece.
…. after all, He IS the Master Builder – and there’s purpose in those pieces.
*Dena*
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That was an awesome message. I needed that this morning❤️
It means so much to me that it encouraged you today, Kathy.
Dena…. I told you how much I hate reading, but as promised I told you I would read your blog. I’m soooo glad I did. What a great writer you are and what a great message.
Yes, it HURTS to step on Legos….. I LOVE your analogy. This is going to stick.
Thank you.
Yes it does! Thank you, my friend. 🙂
Xo’s