Missing Pieces

 

"Dad, look at this awesome Lego set!"  My son, Elliot, said.

I looked at the Amazon page that Elliot had on the screen.  It was some kind of coast guard vessel.  Then, I saw the price and blinked.  It was over 200 dollars.  "You'll need to lose a lot of teeth to be able to afford that set," I told him.  "Is that the most expensive Lego set?"

"Oh, no," he answered with confidence.  "Some of the Star Wars sets are four or five hundred dollars!"

"Really?" I was stunned.  "Who buys Lego sets for hundreds of dollars?"

"People with lots of money," Elliot replied, as though it was a silly question, which it probably was.  People who are struggling to find money for gas or medicine are (hopefully) not going to drop hundreds of dollars on a Lego set -- even if it is a slightly functional replica of the Millennium Falcon.

My children have been given a number of different Lego sets through the years, although none as expensive as the one that Elliot was looking at.  The interesting thing that I have found is that while Lego sets are often completed, they don't remain whole.

Instead, they are taken apart to occasionally be reassembled.  We have, in tubs, the equivalent of five airplanes, a semi-tractor trailer, a Lego train, and even a pirate Lego set.

Truth to tell, humans are a little like Lego sets.  We are probably all there at the beginning, but bit by bit, life knocks pieces off.  If we suffer a serious trauma, everything may fly apart -- just like a Lego Coast Guard ship would upon being dropped on a tile floor -- leaving little that resembles the original, only a pile of rubble.

The wonderful thing about our Heavenly Father is that He is a God of restoration.  Jeremiah 17:14 says, "Heal me Lord and I will be healed."  Psalm 23 contains the short statement, "He restores my soul."

There are so many times that we cannot even find the pieces to put things back together.  This does not stop God from doing so.  He loves us and sees us, even fragmented as we are.  He knows that we are more valuable than even the most expensive Lego set out there -- and that's saying a lot.

Watch Goals

 

"What goal does your watch have for you this month?"  My wife, Elaine, asked me.

I made a disgusted noise.  "It's crazy," I said.  "It set me a goal of burning 37,600 calories this month!"

I'm not certain why I care about what exercise goals my Apple Watch decides to place in my path.  Maybe this is the first step to artificial intelligence taking over and ruling the world.

(I'll tell my grandkids, "It all started in the 2020s with watches telling us to exercise...")

"That sounds like a lot," Elaine commented.

"Just a little!"  I snorted.  "I calculated and that's an average of 1,213 calories a day.  There are some days that I hit that mark, but most days I'm below it.  I think my watch wants to kill me!"

"It's not that bad," my wife said.  "Just don't do it..."

"Back in June my watch wanted me to walk 273 miles in the month -- it was over 9 miles a day!"  I'm afraid my aggravation level was at a pretty high level.

It is wise to set goals.  People who don't have intentionality to their actions end up floating along aimlessly.

It is just important that our goals are realistic.  Some silly person (Google says it was Norman Vincent Peale) said to "Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

This sort of quote makes it clear that Mr. Peale had no concept of the distance between the moon and the nearest star.  From an astronomical sense, the quote should be "Shoot for the moon.  If you miss, you'll end up floating without air in the vacuum of space somewhere between here and Mars."  

More than that, the quote would make more sense if it indicated that you shot for the stars and ended up on the moon.  Most of us struggle with coming up short of our goals -- not overshooting them by a factor of several million.

There are two issues I see with goals.  First, people make their goals relatively unimportant things.  Things like accumulating money or getting promotions within a company, while capable of burning a lot of time and energy, do not bring satisfaction, nor do they have lasting value.

The Apostle Paul said, "I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil 3:14).  His goal had greater worth and as such, the things he did endured long after others of his day's wealth had vanished away.

The second danger is that we set unrealistic goals.  Aiming for things that aren't achievable leads to frustration and can cause us to give up.  It is better to set ourselves a goal that we need to work for but is attainable.

There is little in this world so frustrating as a digital watch ordering you to exercise more than you are able.

Planting Garlic

 

One day, it so happened that I was at the place of business where I ply my trade as a Medicine Man.  Of a truth, I use what leach craft I have to keep the town of Brookneal Humming.

It came to pass that I was seeing a Fellow for Arthur's Itis and High Blood and More Fat in the Blood Stream than the Good Lord intended.  When we finished discussing these Dread Maladies, he asked me, "Doctor, dost thou have aught left of consequence in thy garden?"

This is what passes for small talk in Brookneal.  Verily, if Someone got rid of gardens and weather, half of the conversations around here would Dry Up.

I shook my head.  "Not too much," I said.  "There are some sweet potatoes that I haven't gotten around to digging yet.  There be a few tomatoes as well that are hanging on by the skin of their teeth.  Otherwise, it is mostly done."

I paused then added, "I guess I did plant some garlic this week, but I haven't seen sign of it yet."

"I suppose it is the season for putting gardens to bed for the winter," my patient said.  

There are only four seasons each year.  Those who live in parts south of here do not see all four -- at least not in the way that we do.

Those who have a garden know that how a season turns out depends on the planning that was done in the previous season.  If I desire greatly to have even a meager harvest of garlic in June, I must neeeds plant it the fall before.

In life, there are many more seasons than four.  Oft times there are blessings that come unexpectedly to our paths.  More often, just like in the garden, a little preparation for the future makes a huge difference in our harvest.

The laws of sowing and reaping are undefeated.  It is so much better if we think ahead, tilling, planting the right side, and then cultivating it so that we have a harvest that we desire later on in life.

Those who don't will come to the garden of their life in the fall of the year, only to find assorted weeds and nothing worthy of harvesting.