Put the Man Together First

While at church a couple weeks ago, our pastor told a story that he'd heard many years earlier that he has used to guide his life ever since. The story goes like this: 

There was a father who was very important at his place of work, and he often took hours of work home with him to do over the weekend. One Saturday morning, like most other Saturday mornings, he locked himself in his office to get his "all important" work done.  

Pretty soon, he heard a knock at the door, and when he opened it he saw his 6 year old son standing there with a baseball in one hand and his mitt in the other saying, "Dad, are you ready to go play catch? Remember you promised?" 

The father had forgotten he had made this promise to his young son, but he said simply, "Yes, of course. We will play as soon as I am done working. Come back later, and I promise we will go out and play catch."  

So his son went away, but about 10 minutes later there was another knock on the door. When the father opened it, he saw his son. "Is it later yet, Daddy?" 

"No," said the father. "You didn't give me enough time. Come back in a long while, and then I promise we will play catch." 

So the young boy went away again, but about 30 minutes later there was another knock at the door. "That was a long time, Daddy. Are you done now?" 

The father was getting frustrated, so he explained to his son that he had to wait until he couldn't wait any longer and then wait some more. Then it would be time to go outside to play catch. 

So, the boy went away for over an hour before coming back and knocking on the office door.  "That was a really long time, Daddy. Is it later now?" 

So the father had an idea.  He went to the shelf and pulled out a large world map.  He tore it into many very small pieces and then handed it to his son along with a roll of tape. "Here, son. I made you a puzzle. Put this world map together with the tape. I promise when you are done with that, I will be finished with my work, and we will go out to play together." He felt very smart and sat down to focus on the work at hand. 

The father couldn't believe it when 1-1/2 hours later there was a small knock at the door. When he opened it, his small son stood proudly displaying a heavy, but accurate, world map. "Son, did your mother help you with this?" 

"Yes," the little boy said. 

But still, the father didn't understand how they could have put the map together so quickly. "How did you know how to do that?" he asked his son. 

"Well," the boy said, "I realized that on the other side was a picture of a man with long hair wearing a white robe. I just realized that if I put that Man together, the whole world fell into place." 

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Just remember, if you make sure Jesus is intact in your life, everything else in your world will fall into place. 

Chaos or Calm?

Sometimes it feels like God is nowhere to be found. Maybe He's too busy to worry about my little problems, or maybe He doesn't really care that much. He does, after all, have a whole universe to keep track of. He said it Himself in the Bible, we are each like a speck of sand to Him. Does that mean my problems, fears and broken dreams don't actually matter to Him?

Have you ever had those kinds of thought? I definitely have, but deep down I know they aren't even remotely true. Somehow, some way, God cares so much about each and every one of us. He knows our every thought. He keeps track of every one of our tears. He knows our hopes and dreams, when they are realized and when they are broken and trampled on.

Remember the story about the disciples in Mark 4? They were with Jesus, crossing the Sea of Galilee on a fishing boat. A terrible storm began, and they were afraid for their lives. Jesus was sleeping through the whole thing, and the disciples asked Him, "Don't you care if we drown?" Jesus got up and said to the storm,
"Quiet, be still." And it stopped immediately.

Jesus spoke to the deadly storm as if it was a barking dog that was scaring his young children. "Stop now. Quiet. You're scaring them." And it obeyed.  Had Jesus been unaware that there was a dangerous storm brewing? Of course not. But still, he waited for His children to come to Him seeking protection.

God is our Protector. He wants each and every one of us to run to Him when we are afraid, when we are in need of protection. Oftentimes we forget. We run to worldly "saviors" instead, and we need to realize that God will never let money, people, success, or anything else be our "savior." He is the only One that can truly protect us.

When a storm hits a believer, they are immediately turned into a mirror. What are you reflecting during your storms? Faith in God or faith in the world? Trust or self-reliance? Fear or peace? Chaos or Calm?

It's important to remember that oftentimes God will calm the storm in our lives, but sometimes He calms us in the midst of our storm instead. Either way, He is always in control.