God and Jenga

I’ve been thinking a lot since Ho-Tay’s lesson on Jesus being the cornerstone a little over a week ago. His lesson really struck me because I got a visual image of a large cornerstone and then all theses little rocks that were leaning down on it. But when I pictured my life I saw the cornerstone and a lot of little rocks, but they all were not leaning on the cornerstone. Some of them were depending on some larger rocks that were in there. Such that when the larger rocks were moved the whole structure of the house shifted. And I have felt like my house has really shifted. I can look back, especially over the last three years at how God has been moving those rocks around. As I pondered this metaphor a bit more I got a little angry at God. Because those big rocks were things I really liked about my life and I didn’t want them to be completely taken away.

So . . . I bet you’re wondering when I’m going to get to Jenga . . .

Well, after a few days of reading and hearing about idolatry and how that can ruin our relationship with God. And after a week of thinking about God taking away my big rocks i.e. my idols that took my attention and my dependence away from him I realized that God was more playing Jenga than pulling out the rocks. In Jenga you remove blocks from a structure and then replace them at the top. When it’s played well the structure gets really high and maintains its balance through the center. The balance isn’t spread out over multiple points. I can look back at how God has been doing this for me. Three years ago he took my job that was my life and moved it to a different place so that I was not so dependent on it for my identity. He took my apartment that I so loved and moved me to a community where I lost some of my independence but gained a new idea of what it means to live as an individual in Christian community. This list could continue. But I can look and see how God is not taking those precious things from me; he is just moving their place in my life so I can be properly balanced on the center of my life which is him.