Lego Faces

A recent study looked at the expressions on the faces of Lego people.  Twenty years ago, they all smiled.  But now, a full sixty percent of their faces have expressions other than happiness.

It really impressed me when I went to a Lego store in Columbus, Ohio.  Among other things there, there was a bin with the parts necessary to build your own Lego figurines.  As I looked through the faces, they were mostly angry, sullen, and unhappy with a few pleasant ones in their midst.

Now, I have no idea why Lego people have gotten depressed and bitter over the last twenty years, but probably the biggest reason is that Lego people aren't Christians.  I know that life has a way of beating people down.  It teaches them distrust and anger.

In Romans 5, Paul talks about the sufferings of this life and tells the believers to rejoice in their sufferings, because of what those sufferings will produce in their lives.  He sounds a little bit like my mother in the beginning, telling the Christians that they will receive endurance and character from the trials that they experience.  I almost expect the next thing from him to be the statement.  "And furthermore, they will put hair on your chest," but he doesn't say that.

Instead he shares with the Roman Christians that the things they suffer will bring hope.  This is very different from what these things bring in the lives of those who have no hope in Jesus.

For them, life is an uncertain thing, filled with anguish, loss, and in the end despair.  For them, suffering brings no joy and is to be avoided at all costs.

I will do my best to rejoice in suffering and to let my joy show on my face.  For, God's love is demonstrated for me, not just on the good days, but on the days when suffering drives me to His side.