March 23, 2015
The Big Picture
I interviewed the CEO of a
manufacturing plant that “makes the tools that makes tools.” She noted it’s sometimes
hard for employees to connect with what they are making because they don’t have
the big picture of how the part fits into the end product. Believers are often
caught in a similar dilemma. Even though Revelation gives me a glimpse of the big
picture, I’m still bewildered by some parts in my spiritual purview and I’d
love to know how and where the fit in the spiritual scheme of things. The Lord
said, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to
everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev 22:12-13
NIV).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Paul’s metaphor of the church as a body is worth more than most other metaphors. You can drill into it pretty deep and still keep hitting similarities between it and its target. For example, a little blood cell lolling along a capillary has no virtual awareness of the body as a whole. But when it contacts a hungry muscle cell, for instance, it exchanges its load of oxygen and nutrients for the cell’s load of carbon dioxide and wastes. If each had a brain I suppose they would well perceive this highly localized function. But even at that, they each have a process which corresponds with the other’s process, which is a tiny bit like what a brain would do for them. So, without knowing the big picture of the overall body and their places in it, how do they know which processes to perform when they meet, or even which kind of other cell they’re looking to meet before they meet? DNA. It is full of precise instructions for every cell of the body in any situation for which that cell is meant to perform a function.
-----I studied a semester of drafting in Junior High and two years of drafting in High School. I thought it was really cool how a set of numbers and descriptions could be turned into a picture of a part, or even the part itself, if you gave them to a machinist who was smart enough to work without a picture. I think it was the first opportunity I took to sit back and contemplate information and information’s objectives. The part description given to the draftsman turned out a picture. The same description given to any other draftsman would have turned out the same picture. The same description given to a good machinist would have turned out a part, and if given to any other good machinist, it would have turned out an identical part. DNA in a blood cell is information which determines the cell’s processes within various situations. The same DNA instructs other cells to perform their small piece of “being the body.” But neither the DNA nor the part description informs either the cells, the draftsmen, or the machinists what the entire body is like. Information having fully described a local function is totally sufficient.
-----As parts of the body of the Lord, we are given information in His Word descriptive of our functions. Of course, the metaphor does have its points of divergence. The information of DNA and technical descriptions is precise and particular. The information of the Word of God is precise and universal. In other words, the same information can be given two different disciples in identical situations, but what they do with the information will be only similar, and that to varying degrees. The blood cell, the draftsman, and the machinist do not need overarching information to fully perform their duties. Neither does the disciple need overarching information to perform, because the information is precise about performance, but the more overarching concept he has the more opportunities he will see to perform, and the more precisely he will be able to perform what a particular situation requires. For the information in the Bible is more like a definition than a description, more like a sketch than a drawing, but still like instruction when combined with the processes influenced by the Holy Spirit’s presence in the soul. So, even though two disciples will turn out similar results in identical situations when following the same Scripture, their results’ similarities will increase with overall understanding, and those similarities will also gravitate towards greater effectiveness (aka pleasure of the Lord.)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment