Men's Newsletter - Summer 2023

MEN’S MINISTRY
~ Bob DiGiorgio

Read the instructions…carefully!

I consider myself to be a pretty handy guy around the house. I can fix things. I can build things. I spend countless hours in my woodshop working on various projects. So, when it comes to putting together some furniture from Ikea, who needs to read the instructions -- right? Not me. I can figure this out. I’ll just quickly flip through the pages of the instruction manual to get a sense of how things go together. I will look at a few of the diagrams, and I should be good to go. After all, I’ve built many things that I designed myself. I know how things should fit together.

After an hour or so into the project, I discovered a problem. The holes in one of the boards didn’t line up the way they should. There was no way that this was going to work. My first instinct was to think, “I can’t believe they pre-drilled these holes in the wrong place. How did this get through quality control?”

Before calling the store to request a replacement part, I thought I should read through the instructions a little more carefully. Much to my surprise, I discovered there was nothing wrong with the design, and all the holes were in the right place. I realized that one of the parts that I assembled earlier was upside down. I was quite embarrassed. I made this mistake! I was relying on what I thought I knew, and didn’t follow the instructions that were provided. Some say, “It’s a guy thing.” But really, my pride got in the way.

I think that this is often the way we approach God’s Word. We can flip through the pages quickly. After all, we’ve read this before! When we do that there is so much we miss; so much the Holy Spirit wants to teach us; so many painful pitfalls that we can avoid in life if we would only follow the instruction manual from the One who designed us. Our pride gets in the way, and somehow, we think that we know better than the God who made us.

When we follow the instructions of our Master Builder, we can’t go wrong.

Matthew 17:5 says, “This is my Son whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

In other words, -- “Read the instructions --- carefully!”