Learning by DOING...

James 1.22  "Don't merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says!

My little boy, Sam, loves Lego.  Now, these are not the Legos I grew up with … not just little squares and rectangles in primary colors.  The Legos of the new millennium are more like tiny pieces of ultra modern technology posting the warning: engineering degree required. 

For his eighth birthday, Sam received a particularly challenging Lego set.   He pulled out the instruction sheet and unfolded it on the kitchen table.   I doubt the plans for the Space Shuttle could have been much more complicated.  He read the instructions.  I read the instructions.  Then he read the instructions again.  They just didn’t make sense.  There was no way the pieces piled on the table were going to make a spaceship!  Out of sheer determination, he just started putting pieces together.  If one piece didn’t seem to work, he tried another.  And wouldn’t you know, before long, a form resembling a spaceship began to emerge from the pile of obscure pieces on the kitchen table.  It was in actually putting the pieces together that he began to understand the instructions, and the object became a reality.  And in the end, it was quite a work of art!

So it is with this journey we call the Christian life.  We learn by doing!  We learn what works, what fits … and what doesn’t.   Having a Bible on a shelf does no more good than the unopened box of Legos on our kitchen table.   We have to rip open that box and go to work! (Even if we don't fully understand the instructions; even if we can't see the end-result.) As we spend time reading the Word and doing what it says, the pieces of our lives will be formed into the image of Christ.   Whether we’re talking about our character, spiritual growth, discipleship or ministry, each becomes a reality by doing it!