Well, imagine my surprise!

     I'm a guy and that should be a warning to other guys out there that I am about to bear some guy secrets.  Well, maybe not secrets.  I'm surprised when I finish putting together the latest thing requiring "some assembly" and there are left over parts.  Imagine my surprise the first time I put together an item and there were parts left over?!  No one told me that when I grew up this would happen on a regular and reoccurring manner.  It should be required teaching in school if our fellow men aren't willing to share this important lesson of life.  I've figured it our though.  After quite a few "spare parts" I've come to the conclusion that it's an evil plot to frustrate us men and to take our eyes off Jesus.  I bet Jesus didn't have any left over parts as a carpenter.  Though he seems to have left over parts to deal with in assembling me to his likeness.  When I moved into this house I purchased a cabinet for my TV.  I had so many left over parts that I was sure I had assembled it wrong.  However, on closer scrutiny, I realized that the parts were "spares". As such, I just added them to my growing collection of coffee cans filled with "spare parts"   Where am I ever going to use them?  I certainly don't know.  I've amassed a lot of spare parts in my life as well.  When I ship off this package to Jesus in prayer I'm sure he wonders where the extra parts come from.  Maybe some inattentive foreign worker getting paid barely anything threw a couple of screws and a bolt or two into the package to really stick it to me!  Well, maybe it's not a conspiracy theory.  Jesus takes my spare parts and uses them to create in me that which can be constructive and able to project himself to my world.
     The hard part is when a family member (going to leave that unnamed) is watching me put together that toy, piece of furniture, or other item.  "Aren't you going to use ______ ?"  I don't know how to explain the conspiracy theory or the excess parts so I say everything will go to good use.  I toss the spare parts in my pocket so they won't be asked about again.  Somewhere down the road that same person will ask if I have anything to fix this or that.  Guess what!  I do!  I pull down my coffee can (number 3) and pull out just what is needed.  "Where did you get all that?" is usually the next question.  I tell them that God supplies all my needs even before I need them.  Because they are all spare parts they don't cost me anything!  Score one for the man!  God doesn't need our spare parts and asks us to leave them at the door.  The spare parts that we carry are contingency plans and God doesn't need spare parts for his plan.  He has all he needs to make us into what he considers a better man.  Our need to keep spare parts is partly because of our lack of faith.  "Well, you never know when you will need this 5/16th nut."  "Well, you never know when you will need this extra supply of oatmeal."  Get the point?  We don't need the contingency plan in our Christian living.  Imagine my surprise when I read that God not only has supplied but is supplying and will continue to supply all of our needs and lots of our wants.  All we need to do is ask in faith believing.
     I have to confess (confession is good for the soul) that there have been times when I have finished a project and found that I am missing something.  It's usually already been put in the coffee can.  So, I do what every good self proclaimed assembly worker will do; I don't go back and do it again.  "Do it again" is short for "do it right".  Who will know?  That's what I tell myself.  Who will know?  We all know that if it's going to become known that the event will happen at that time when my error can have the most impact on the most people.  "I thought you said they were spare parts?"  Yep, I get caught.  Whenever I try to run my life I find myself eventually facing the question from God.  "Why didn't you let me do it, handle it, provide for it, and many other attributes of a very loving and forgiving God.  It's difficult enough admitting we are wrong to other men; but to the opposite sex, our children, in-laws, the neighbor or our pastor?  It's the humbling experience, if we are honest, of admitting our wrong so that the Maker can fix our mistakes.  God has been so good to me.  I've messed up more areas of my life than most people can ever imagine exist.  Yet, because God loves me and you, he allows us to choose.  It is always my choice.