Construction project managers are gifted people who are capable of seeing a completed building before there’s even a hole in the ground or before one piece of building material arrives on site. It’s like they work backward in their minds from the finished project to the very beginning, analyzing, organizing, foreseeing, and communicating with efficiency and timeliness. They are indispensable people to everyone working there. They are unfazed by the chaos and noise as things get underway. Those who are not gifted at doing this stand back in amazement at this incredible ability.
I am one of the ‘amazed’ ones. I think of the many complex steps involved, the precision of measurement, the calculation of loadbearing structural elements, the planning for utilities, and on and on. I then picture how inane it would be for me, the non-architect, to step in even for a day and give instructions. I’m sure I could create a major setback on the entire project in just a few hours of being in charge. It makes me shudder. Far better to sit back in the peanut gallery and let the masters do their thing – safer, too.
We, today, have the benefit of God’s written Word plus two thousand years of church history. We ‘know’ that God is Supreme Intelligence, King of Kings, Lord of all, and so much more. We know, too, that we are none of these! The knowledge that He sees us as we are and loves us, causes us to tremble in awe and grateful worship. And yet we, His Church, continue in our misguided tendency to question Him, to doubt His goodness, to want to propose a better way, to disapprove of His ‘tardinesses,’ to pout about His answers to our prayers!
But what a glorious breakthrough is at hand as we choose to begin looking to Him in faith (however wonky)! We can trust Him before, during and after an episode where, before, we would have resisted (and grumbled). By faith we can truly ‘see’ that He is the Master of every situation (bar none), that He sees the ending as equal to the beginning and is confidently working, step by step, for our benefit and His Glory. We can sleep in perfect peace, aware that we are safe in His lavish love – even amid apparent chaos. What a relief! PD
