I've had a bag of Lego on my desk for a while. I don't know where it came from, but I think I found it lying around and claimed it.
Yesterday I decided to open it and make what was inside. The picture on the outside of the bag promised much, but inside there were no instructions. Maybe that's normal for these kinds of bags of Lego, or maybe that's why it had been discarded, or donated, or whatever happened with it.
Being a resourceful person, I decided that I could probably make it using the picture as a guide. I started with the bits I could see most clearly on the picture, which, with a bit of manoeuvring, rotating and inspecting the picture closely were quite easy. It was beginning to look like a train.
It was the next bit that was hard. I couldn't really see what was going on underneath and there were a few irritating bits where I had to get up close and personal with the picture and try and work out if it was two pieces or one, but in the end the outcome didn't look bad and resembled the picture quite nicely.
But then I put the train down on the table and it tilted. The front wheels far too small and the back far too big - misaligned and not quite stable with two spare pieces that I have no idea where they go.
I eventually figured out that to make it stable it probably needed a track - some kind of rails to give it some direction and stability, showing it the way to go.
Whilst I was building the train I reflected on how the mystery of how it fitted together is a bit like trying to lead a church - particularly trying to lead a church right now. The picture of what we think it might look like is there, but how the pieces fit together is a bit of a mystery. The pieces aren't necessarily the pieces we expect, and don't fit together in a logical order sometimes.... yet something is being built.
Where the pandemic scattered our pieces and the instruction book that went with them, as we come back together the pieces aren't necessarily fitting together easily. Key pieces are missing because people have moved away or disappeared or are still nervous about stepping out into the world. What we are trying to piece back together is not quite the same as the picture that we might imagine is on the outside of the bag and when the pieces seem to be put into place, the end product, it leans..... and there are some bits that don't seem to have found a place at all.
When I looked back at that picture I noticed that it wasn't because the wheels were wrong, but because the wheels had no track to sit on. Perhaps if the wheels had a track to sit on, then the train would feel stable and the pieces that were struggling to find a place right now could be carried without falling out.
As we cling on to the picture we hope will emerge, beneath our feet has got to be a track to hold us steady, and what might seem to be a track made of Christian cheese, those rails that hold us steady - they are the rails that Jesus laid when he said, come follow me.
As we seek to put the pieces back together, we've got to remember that however finished the final model is, without rails, it will just be wonky and functioning will very likely be a challenge because a wonky train without tracks is not going to get very far under its own steam.....
"Everybody says they want to be free. Take the train off the tracks and it's free - but it can't go anywhere" - Zig Ziglar
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your [tracks] straight" Proverbs 3:5-6
