“I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!”

A few weeks ago, I went out & bought a desk for my home office!  I had seen it in the store for weeks, it was the exact color that I wanted, it would work perfectly with the theme I was going for in that particular room, the price was right, & the best part about it was that it was not assembled therefore, it would give me something fun to do!

Early Sunday morning, I got up, & decided to put this desk together.  I pumped up the music, laid all the pieces out on the floor, broke open the packet of hardware, grabbed my hammer & screw driver, & of course, the trusty instructions!

Page One, the instructions read—“lay out all the materials you will be needing for the project”, I looked at the booklet  and thought, “Duh, I’ve done that already!”  Page Two, the instructions read—“Count & ensure that all the pieces of hardware are enclosed in this packet”.  “Yeah right!  Who is really going to count all those billions of pieces!?” I said to myself.

As I continued skimming past all the pages of the preliminary things, (& all that non-sense), I began to think to myself, “Come on now Chanda, how hard could it actually be to put this thing together?  I have all the pieces, & I have the picture, clearly, I know what I am doing!”

The first hour went by, & I thought to myself, “hey, I am doing pretty well, everything is under control.” Around the 2 hour mark, I started to get a little frustrated, some of the pieces didn’t seem to be fitting as planned, but I dare not pick up the instruction manual after all, I know what I am doing!

As I hit the 3 hour mark on this project, (& I know what you are thinking right now)but YES!  I was finally done! Mission accomplished! Task completed!  After all, I knew what I was doing!

I held up the picture next to the desk, it looked exactly like the picture did…well just kinda.  What I still can’t get my head wrapped around was the fact that I had about 20 or so extra nuts, bolts & screws, & about 5 pieces of the wood left over. (I guess that explains all the missing drawers I should have). But then I thought to myself—who cares, it looks good enough, I knew, I knew what I was doing!

How many times have you been in a similar situation?  A situation where you had been given basic instructions on what to do, yet figured that you knew what was best after all, YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING! Right?

God’s Word has said to us, (I’m quoting from the Message by: Eugene Peterson, because he hits the nail on the head on this one), Jeremiah 29:11—God declares, “I know what I’m doing!  I have it all planned out, plans to take care of you, & never to leave you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”

God has given us a set of basic instructions to follow if we desire to be successful in life—The Bible!   How much longer will we continue to set the Instructions aside, & allow things in our life to be, “just kinda” like when the real deal should look like?  How much longer will we continue to rob ourselves of the full benefits that have been offered?

It’s time for us to stop this, “I know what I am doing” attitude.  Now is the time for us to pick up the Instruction Book & focus on the “I AM” who HAS done, IS doing, and IS GOING to do awesome things in our lives!  After all, He Knows exactly what He’s doing!