A man and his tower

            There was once a man who decided to build a tower to the glory of God. It was going to be taller than any other building around, standing out from the landscape. It would be masterfully designed and constructed using the finest materials. At night it would light up in spectacular fashion. It was going to enhance the vista. Everyone would notice it, and people would even travel from miles around to come and see this grand tower. To be sure everyone knew that the tower was for the Lord, the Name of Jesus would be writ large across its face for all the world to see.

            It was a great undertaking, and the man was eager to get started. He was so excited for everyone to see this tower completed. So, when the architects and foremen, and the financiers came to him to lay out the plans, and discuss how to build the tower he told them just to get started right away. They did. At first things went well. The whole community took note as the site was prepared and beams began to rise, and concrete began to be poured. Everyone watched as shipments of marble, and fine hardwoods came in.

            It was not long however, before the builders ran into some difficulty. The work slowed down. The man was faced with a tough problem. But he couldn’t stand to see the progress retarded. So, he told the builders to move on to something else while he figured out what to do about things. The work went on in this way for some time.

            The tower reached higher and higher, finally reaching high enough for all to see. But what they saw was a mess of a tower its various parts in disarray. In places the raw beams stilled showed, in others even the façade had been erected. It looked ridiculous. And then the work came to a sudden halt. The man was outraged; he demanded to know why they had stopped work on his tower with it in such a sorry state. They told him simply that the money had run out. “But this tower was to be for God’s glory!” The man exclaimed. “Oh, no worries about that sir, we made sure and put His name up there just as you wanted.” With that all the workers left.

            Everyone saw this tower. Some shook their heads at it in disbelief, others in disgust. Some mocked the man and his tower, and a few wept openly. Then one night a storm blew up, and in an instance the tower fell. The man knelt by the wreckage in anguish and raised his eyes to Heaven, “Oh, Lord why didn’t you provide for this tower to be built to Your glory?”

            Suddenly the man felt a hand on his shoulder and turned. To his astonishment it was the Lord. The man asked again, “Lord why didn’t you provide for the tower.” The Lord looked on the man with pity and replied, “I did provide, all you needed and more, only you never asked me for it.” The man was stunned. “I thought I had all I needed, and everything started off so well…” He fell silent unable to continue. Then the Lord spoke again, “Oh man, did I not tell you to count the cost.”

Luke 14:27-30

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Last Conversation with Grandad

  The Last Conversation with Granddad; A Eulogy for Marshall Helms             There is so much that needs to be done, and so precious little time. There are some here who need comfort, and some who need assurance, and some who need encouragement, and some who need to be admonished. Yes, there is much to do, and precious little time. So, let us pray. Father, the task before me is overwhelming, and I have no strength for it. Abide with me please that in my weakness Your strength might be perfectly evidence, and Your word might go forth today to accomplish all Your good and perfect will. I ask it for the sake of Your glory, In the name of Jesus. Amen.             It has been rightly said that it is not wrong to mourn. Indeed, in Matthew 5 our Lord says those who mourn are blessed for they will be comforted. We mourn death because it is unnatural. It discomforts us bec...
Read more

Against work addiction

  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2 ESV             When work becomes anxious toil, something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong in our society when it comes to work. Several decades ago, Wayne Oats coined a new word, “Workaholic” to describe addiction to work.   The description Oats came up resonates with the psalmist describes. Anxious toiling, long hours, and little if any enjoyment of the work itself or the fruits of the toil. Addiction is another word for slavery, and it is easy to be enslaved by the anxiety over our work for it drives to work more, and that increases our anxiety while also burning through psychological energies.             Not only is workaholism addiction/slavery, it is idolatry for if we stop to think about it the workaholic ...
Read more

Up and ahead

              Sometimes we are blindsided by a sudden shift in life. We thought we were on stable ground, and then someone starts shouting at us in a routine meeting, or tells us we don’t have a job anymore on a Monday morning, or a loved one leaves on Friday evening with no plans to return. We are left with broken piece of something that once made a kind of sense to us. We knew, and now we do not know.             Where is God? We can’t see Him anymore. We cannot understand where He went to, or what he was thinking. We trusted Him, didn’t we? Now look where we are… It is the better part of wisdom to be quiet when these calamities come to visit and to wait. It is the one wise thing Job’s friend did, when first they saw the plight of the miserable man, they only wept with him.             When later they decided to...
Read more