"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
About a year ago a friend built some shelves for me. When he arrived at my house, he unloaded a pile of tools. I laughed and told him that, believe it or not, I had tools that he could use. He didn’t need to bring his own. He was grateful, but said, “I didn’t know if you would have the right tools.”
As it turned out, all the tools he had brought: power saw, power screwdriver, sandpaper, hammer, level and tape-measure, I did in fact own, but I was glad that he had brought his own tools. I could see how comfortable he was with them. The selves were built and the task completed.
This event got me thinking.
A good friend of mine is my auto mechanic. He does my routine car maintenance on my vehicles and troubleshoots for me when I have an automotive concern. My mechanic friend has a shop FULL of tools. His tools are specific to his trade. Each tool meets a specific need, some tools are even specified to the specific make and model of a vehicle.
As I dived deeper into this thinking about tools, I thought about myself. Yes, I have tools in my garage, a whole boxful in fact. But to be honest, they are rarely used… at least not by me. Maybe a hammer or screwdriver occasionally. There are tools, however, in my home that I use on a consistent basis. They are the tools of my kitchen.
I am well versed in what kitchen tool or gadget will be used for which task. I know that while a blender is a great tool for making smoothies, it does not work well when peeling an apple. I don’t chop onions with a wire-whisk and I don’t whip cream with a butcher knife. Each tool is distinctly designed for its purpose. I could probably accomplish a task with the wrong tool, rolling out cookie dough with a spatula or chopping nuts with a meat mallet. Uncommon tools would get the job done, but the intended tool makes the job much more efficient. The outcome is much more desired.
The importance of tools also applies to the order in which they are used. If my friend who built my shelves had used his tape-measure after the saw, instead of before he made the cut, he might have seen only the mistake he had already made instead of the mistake he could possibly make. (After all, you can’t uncut wood.) If he had used the sandpaper before the saw, he might have had to go back and sand again if the wood had splintered under the distress of the cuts. Cutting first and then sanding made the process more effective and efficient and in the end produced a much more pleasing product.
There are times in our lives when we need the right tools. And I’m not just talking about physical tools to cut vegetables or mend a fence. I mean that there are life tools we need.
A lot of times, I think we don’t know which tool to reach for and so we just grab the nearest one. Usually, it’s the one we are most familiar with. It’s the tool that feels the most comfortable or with which we have the most familiarity. When we are confused we reach out to anger because it has served us in the past. When we are hurt, we reach out for sadness, because it is predictable, and it doesn't require effort. When we are challenged, we reach out for defensiveness because defensiveness has protected our pride or justified our behavior even when we didn’t feel all too great about that behavior in the first place.
These tools of comfort can be things, too, or devices. When we are confronted with grief we reach out to alcohol. When we are confronted with loneliness, we reach out for unhealthy people, boredom reaches for social media, rejection reaches out for a candy bar, insignificance seeks the aid of unhealthy work boundaries. When we are confronted with betrayal we reach out with a clenched fist, a harsh word, a slammed door…
We are reaching for tools, but they are the wrong tools. We need to learn to reach out for the right ones. Don’t worry. We’ve all got a toolbox with the tools we need to navigate these trials.
The Bible is essentially that toolbox. It is a toolbox overflowing with tools. The tools are for any aspect of life. God breathed his Word into the Bible so that we would have an instruction manual for times when we needed a tool. He even tells us what tool to reach for when we are struggling. And usually he even gives us lots of options.
He doesn't just say “use the hammer!”, he says, “use the hammer… or the saw… or the tape measure… or the level.” He gives us context to use different tools with the same objective. Because unlike the physical tools we use in the day-to-day, the tools God offers us are divine. He offers us the tool of peace for uncertain times. However, we can also use joy in uncertain times or patience or kindness or gentleness or self-control. He gives us tools for seasons and for people and for circumstances. He gives us tools to use with our kids, in our jobs, and in the dark nights when sleep doesn’t come and voices in our mind can’t be quieted. This vast toolbox gives us so many options. However, the problem lies in the fact that most of us never even lift the lid. We don’t even open the cover.
The Bible can be intimidating. It isn’t intended to be read from front to back like most books. Going back to the car maintenance metaphor, if you are going to change the oil in your car for the first time, you don’t start reading the manual from the beginning! You look in the index. You find the content that you need to address the issue at hand. That’s the way the Bible works. Fortunately for us, we have an amazing Bible index at our fingertips! It’s called the internet. If you are struggling with loneliness, Google search “Bible verses for when I’m lonely.” If you are angry because someone mistreated you, Google search “Bible verses for when I’m angry” or “Bible verses for when I’ve been hurt”.
The Google mechanism will spit out hundreds, if not thousands of options for you. Click on one. Read it. If that one doesn’t feel right, go the next one and the next until you find the one that fits your situation. It’s like finding the right sized screwdriver for a screw, you might have to try a couple before you find the right one But the right tool is there for you. You just might have to work a little bit to find it.
Do you know what the really cool thing is? The more you use these tools, the easier you will find it is to work with them. You will find the tools that you are most comfortable with; the tool that fits in your hand comfortably. You will find that there are certain tools that you pull out more often than others. You will know which tool to use in which season. The tools will become more efficient because you will know how they work best for you. You may offer a tool to someone else and it doesn’t work for them. That’s okay. You know how it works for you.
God’s word will become part of your personal toolbox. You will turn to it instead of the old tools that never served you very well and never did a very good job. Your tool of compassion will work better than your tool of contempt. Your tool of grace will replace your tool of judgment. Your tool of forgiveness will replace your tool of resentment. You will be operating in a place of health and functionality rather than a place of survival and desperation.
In 1 Corinthians 13 our dear brother Paul writes: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me… these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Paul is opening the toolbox and offering the Church in Corinth (and us) three of the greatest possible tools for their lives. Faith, hope and love.
Now, I’m not a Bible expert, but I think there is importance in noting the order that Paul offers these tools. Just like you don’t use the measuring tape after you cut the wood, Paul says faith first. Maybe this means that it is the first step. Use the step of faith, the tool of faith, first. When you’re confused or hurt, desperate or disillusioned, find faith. Next, Paul offers hope. Once you have found your faith, hope is not far behind. It’s almost like faith opens the door for hope to come in. Hope comes in when you’re feeling lost or alone or betrayed or abandoned. Hope for improvement, hope for healing or reconciliation. Hope for a future. Hope for prosperity. Hope for deliverance… And then Paul brings it home...
He brings it home with love. Once you have found your faith and opened the door to hope, you can use the tool of love. And it really is the greatest tool. It’s one of those universal tools that you can use for almost everything. That's why Paul says it is the “greatest of these”. Hope and faith are amazing and necessary, but add love to the mix and it’s like you’ve just turbo charged all the rest. It’s the missing ingredient. Love is the secret-sauce. Love is the tool that we forget to reach for but when we do, it does the best, most efficient, most beautiful job.
We have this amazing opportunity to build a beautiful creation which is our life. When we use the right tools, God comes alongside us as the architect and surveys our work. He approves it and reinforces our efforts. With our slightest effort He builds a life of faith and hope and love so strong that we can be a guide to others who are trapped in the darkness, groping for the right tools. He is setting the right tool before us, all we need to do is reach out and pick it up.
The Bible is an underutilized toolbox. It is filled with tools for any season, any weather, any situation, any person. Unlike a toolbox stowed away in the corner of the garage, it should be a toolbox that is always at our fingertips. Instead of being filled with tools for building and fixing things, it is a toolbox for building and fixing lives!
Keep reaching for it and seeking to make sense of it. Keep asking God to give you clarity in how to use His tools in all manner of life circumstances. Keep reaching for the tools of faith, hope and love. Then maybe one day, you will be able to see what an amazing life you have built out of a life that didn’t always go as planned… and that's how you’ll know you used the right tools to build it with.
Commentaires