Some Assembly Required

Refuge Message Series

February 28, 2011

Have you ever seen something in the store that you wanted and bought it only to have it delivered in a box that is full of pieces instead of a final product? When this happens the all-too-familiar words "Some Assembly Required" mark the packaging. These words focus not on what is but on what could be. You have hopes and dreams of what the new purchase can bring to your life. But you had no idea that so much would be asked of you to make your purchase useful. So you open the box and realize that maybe you've bitten off more than you could chew. You have the pieces, the tools, and the instructions. What happens next is up to you.

Some Assembly Required is a series that recognizes that sometimes the best things in life come in pieces and that how we put the pieces together determines what we have in the end. So, we work, we read, we choose, and we construct. Sometimes, we must deconstruct and we start over. But in the end, we learn more in the process than we ever could have if the final product had just been handed to us, and we discover that some assembly required is not the threat we thought it was but actually part of the gift.

This is how a relationship with God often functions. It's easy to think that the Christian life is a one-stop shop purchased by one decision and a lot of grace. We want the finished product without the process. But it rarely works this way. Rather, when we choose God, we don't get a life complete and free from struggle. Instead, God gives us a life with new potential, a set of instructions and a smile. He invites us into the process of putting it all together and works beside us as we do.

This series is a journey through the construction, instruction, deconstruction and reconstruction that developing a life with God requires. It's a collision of God's initiative and our prerogative. It's a collision of God's ability and our responsibility. It's a tale of how the Christian life is really lived. It's a story of the best gift ever given - a gift that comes some assembly required.