Building Towers
“a time to tear down and a time to build,” Ecclesiastes 3:3b (NIV)/ Pixabay
I’ve recently returned home after spending a few days with my grandsons. Oh, my heart is happy! We made a tent, read stories, played on the swings, and blew bubbles. Along with other little boy fun and games we also spent time together using blocks to build towers. Here’s what I’ve noticed over the years, we adults are very protective of our towers! While the wee ones like laying one block upon the other, their favorite part of building is actually the knocking down! And they are good at knocking down! I’m ashamed to say that there have been times that I’ve had to bite my tongue because I was about to whine (or even get a little angry) when they chose my tower to topple! Silly, right?
But aren’t we the very same way about building our towers in real life? I don’t know about you, I like to be the architect and contractor in one! In other words, I want control over my tower! We carefully stack our “blocks”: the job we have, where we live, who we marry, the goals we pursue, the people we spend time with and the tower gets higher and higher. We’re in command of it all. That is….until we’re not. The promotion we were counting on doesn’t come….a block wobbles. Someone we care about betrays us…..blocks fall. The phone rings and life is never the same…..the tower topples to the ground. We whine. We worry. We cry. We. Get. Mad.
Here’s what I’m learning: Our towers will always get knocked down.
“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake,
you will save it.” Matthew 16:25 (NLT)
“You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” Proverbs 19:21
In other words, we need to stop trying to do the constructing ourselves and hand the job over to the true Creator, allowing Him to do the designing. When we build on the foundation that is Christ, our towers may teeter in the winds of life; circumstances may rearrange our blocks, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail. Our towers will not fall.
I’m going to be honest; it’s not easy for me! Just like I wanted to protect and keep the carefully made tower I built with my grandsons, I desire to control my everyday. Silly, right? Maybe you’ve been watching your own towers get knocked over, too. It’s time we put away the self-made architects’ plans, give up the contractor’s hats, and instead become laborers building a life under God’s direction. A life that when given up, is actually saved. It doesn’t get better built than that!
“For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”
1 Corinthians 3:9 (NIV)
Linking up again with the wonderful writers at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com and at http://www.anitaojeda.com