I ripped open the package, sorted out all the stuff on the floor, and straight away hit the first problem. I couldn't understand the drawings on the box. I searched around for an explanatory manual; surely these things must come with one (heck, even my rice cooker had one), but there was none. The only instructions were spelt out on the box - in arrows, circles and weird lines here and there. I pride myself on my English language and my legal background. But all these were useless in deciphering the sketchings; it could have been Egyptian hieroglyphics as far as I was concerned. The pieces of wood were all marked with numbers, but they didn't match the ones printed on the box. I scratched my head; I have never been good with numbers stuff. That was the first inkling I had that putting together some planks to form a shelf wasn't such an easy piece of cake after all. But what the heck, it's just a few pieces of wood; surely I could handle that, never say die ....
Some 2 hours of sweat later, I saw the beginnings of a shelf taking shape. I was elated...hey, not bad, I can do it after all. Though I have to confess I had major problems trying to align the planks and the holes where the screws were supposed to fit, but nothing that a few good whacks of the hammer couldn't take care of, although strictly speaking I was supposed to use a screw-driver but what's the diff? Hammer gets the job done much faster and easier, right? Of coz I didn't quite anticipate that that would result in some parts of the chip (cheap is the more accurate term, I would say) board breaking off, and one back piece having a gaping hole. Anyway, that aside, finally, I was all set to slide in the doors - at which point I discovered I had nailed the racks all in the wrong sequence; the top had become the bottom and the middle were all muddled. Not to mention one back had become the front. I looked at the clock. I spent the next hour pulling apart the whole contraption and putting it back together again. By which time, though I got it right way up, all the pieces had been so whacked out of shape and alignment the whole 'thing' shook on its base. And of coz the doors couldn't fit in at all despite all my huffing and puffing and pushing and pulling.
But hey, ever the optimist, to me it looked like a shelf anyway, so it will do. I mentally reminded myself I would have to get some cardboard and sticky tape to cover up the gaping hole. My daughter had snapped a pix of me hard at work and posted it on fb; I hoped I looked a competent carpenter, though I certainly didn't feel like one. As I cleaned up, I swore to myself; this would be the first and last time I try my hand at DIY. There are just some things in life that I am not meant to do ....
Come to think of it, carpentry isn't the only thing I shouldn't attempt. If I can't even fix a simple 4-tiered shelf, how presumptuous of me to think I can fix something as complicated as life without help. I couldn't even get the first thing right - understanding the manufacturer's instructions. Confident and brash as I am, I had proceeded willy-nilly any old how, my own way, to put all the random pieces together, only to discover the puzzle in my hands had gone all awry. What looked like random pieces actually had a pattern to it all, which I had ignored at my own peril.
I venture such is life too. Ever since Adam and Eve, mankind can't be bothered to understand our Maker's instructions to piece together the 'shelf' of our lives. We substitute His original design with our own ideas, meaning and purpose, and pretty much shove Him aside as an irrelevant and unnecessary 'box'. We devise our own construction methods. Just as I opted for a hammer rather than a screw-driver, we prefer quick fix-it shortcuts instead of spending time wrestling over nitty-gritty details like faith, sin, righteousness, or salvation. In the process, our lives end up with 'holes' and brokenness where God meant to build fullness and completion. We think life is just a series of random 'accidents' that bear no significance whatsoever for things will 'just so happen' anyway, blithely ignoring the fact that there are (always) 2 sides to a coin; that perhaps the truth is actually, everything happens for a reason and every piece of life's jigsaw puzzle is meant to fit into 1 big beautiful picture according to the intention of the 'manufacturer'. Like the artist who already has in mind the masterpiece he wants to paint even before the first stroke of the brush lands on the blank canvas.
We throw away the 'doors' that would keep all the dirty stuff out, since doors are really quite dispensable - after all, a shelf can still function as a shelf without doors. So likewise we open our hearts' doors to let anything and everything in, calling it freedom. Heck, we even think we are doing a pretty good job building up our 'shelf-life' becoz well, it looks good, it feels good and that's enuf to pass it off as decent. Just like I attempt to pass off my poor handiwork.
Sure, it looks like an 'ok' shelf, (barring all the holes, chipped off corners and ugly patches of cardboard 'fillers'). But one little shake is enough to put into doubt its eventual functionability. Oh, it will hold up for a while, I am sure, though I am not exactly sure for how long. Besides, it's 'just' a shelf. If it collapses, it's no big deal; I simply go out and buy another shelf.
Not so easy with life though - there's no shop on earth that sells another life. We mess this one up, we suffer the consequences. Oh sure, it can still be 'lived'; it can still be a 'decent' life on earth. But it would never amount to LIFE as our Creator meant it to be, if only we had built according to His originally perfect design and instructions. What's worse is just as surely as my shaky shelf will be consigned to burn on a garbage heap one day soon, a life that's not built according to God's specifications will end up consumed in eternal fire not of this world. That's the unvarnished law of consequences - we reap what we sow.
I could try DIY for my life, under the delusion that I can make it pretty well on my own. But ultimately I am the one who's living a lie, because the truth will show up in the end product - a shelf isn't a shelf just because I managed to put together some planks. A life isn't a life just because we think and we seem to be getting along fine without God.
I freely confess I am lousy at directions and DIY (and I am not talking about shelves). So everyday I thank my "Manufacturer" He has already provided a map and a building plan for the road and project of my life. All I need do is choose to consult, understand, accept and follow it. I could never go wrong with something that simple - unlike fixing shelves. (Now I gotta figure out what to do with 2 "left-over" doors which are of absolutely no use.....)
"I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." - Psalm 139:14
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