"Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain." (Psalm 127:1)
I have recently discovered a fascinating web site entitled "How Everyday Things are Made." The site is engineered by the good people at Stanford University (see manufacturing.stanford.edu).
Here you can learn how airplanes are made – and dozens of additional "everyday" devices, from semiconductors to jellybeans. Did you know that it takes about a week to make a modern jellybean? I was relieved to learn that manufacturers can produce more than one at a time.
Jellybeans, it turns out, are more complicated than I thought. And there are still more complicated things.
How do you build a better world, for example? How do you build peace with justice? How do you build a climate of mutual respect between peoples and cultures, or some measure of international understanding, or some semblance of international security? These things, too, are more complicated than we might have thought. We have learned in recent months that simple force won’t accomplish these things. We have learned that hydraulics, or mechanics, or computer engineering won’t bring these items easily to the light of day. Things like these are built in the subtle recesses of the human heart, and by counter-intuitive processes. Like jellybeans, this kind of building will take a while.
This month we commemorate, once again, the Protestant Reformation. We remember Luther’s "discovery" of the explosive, liberating power of the Gospel – not limited by human weakness, not bettered by human strength. The discover y is still germane. It suggests the only reasonable, long-term strategy for building the really important things.
"The noblest and greatest work and the most important service we can perform for God on earth," Luther insisted, "is bringing other people…to the knowledge of God by the holy Gospel" (WA 53,415).
Are you interested in building the important things in life, however complicated and difficult the task may be? Maybe a better home or neighborhood? Maybe a better world? Here you have a strategy: share the holy Gospel.
Take your cue from Martin Luther. Sharing this amazing Gospel is the most important service on earth.
"The Way I See It", October 2003
© Copyright 2003 (World Mission Prayer League). All rights reserved.