Instrustions Followed

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

“Instructions Followed”

            Don’t accuse me of gender bashing today.  You can’t bash if you are one!  Well, I guess you can, but is that considered self-evaluation or self-destruction.  Probably a little of both.

            Why don’t guys read instructions?  There are multiple reasons why, such as the instructions lately seem to be written by a person whose third or fourth language is English!  But there is a deeper reason why:  men seem to either know how or we think we have the solution before we even get started!  Husbands have the answer to the problem long before the wife finishes talking, and then mistakenly interrupts and shares the answer.  Headlines:  they just want us to listen to their problems, not solve them!  In other words, they want us to hear (or read) all the instructions.

            I’m one of the world’s worst.  A few years ago, I bought a very nice barbeque grill.  I emptied the box of all the major parts and a big bag of bolts, nuts, and washers.  How hard can this be?  Two hours later I discovered the bolt I was trying to use was too short to hold the burner in place.  After I went back to the box and found the instructions and carefully read through them, I realized I had used the longer bolts earlier where the shorter ones were supposed to be used.  After disassembling the grill, I reassembled it using the instructions.  I guess I finally gave in to the creator instead of thinking my way was better!

            About forty days after Jesus rose from the empty tomb, He stood on a hilltop with the eleven apostles and even more disciples.  One of them asked Him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  Wow!  After receiving all Jesus had taught them, after all the predictions of His death and resurrection, after all the parables and teachings about His kingdom not being of this world, an apostle still asks if Jesus was here to set up His earthly kingdom and free them from Roman oppression.  While they may not have had written instructions, you can’t get any better verbal instructions concerning the kingdom of God than from God the Son!

            Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait.  Wait for what, they must have thought.  It was a gift, one He had promised and one God the Father had promised.  Scriptures do not say if they argued with Jesus, but we do know one fact – they followed the instructions.  After seeing all the miracles, the healings, the water-to-wine, the three raisings from the dead, and hearing the prophets and the law come to life, they still asked the question:  “Now Lord?”  But this time they followed Jesus’ instructions, went into Jerusalem, and there they received the greatest gift from the Creator of the universe.  Not only did the Holy Spirit come, He moved into the place God the Father had created in Adam and every person since – the most Holy place inside us specially designed by the Holy Trinity.

            Follow God’s instructions.  It will save a lot of time, and His way is always the better one!