When I posted my last blog entry entitled “Man and Machine” (July 16, 2022) on Facebook, I quipped that the post might keep one from “blowing it.” The pun suggested that readers might avoid life breakdowns by following the Owner’s Manual. The blog anecdote retold the experience of a salesclerk improperly operating a machine for blowing insulation, that my husband was preparing to rent. The machine shorted out and they wouldn’t rent the compromised equipment to him.
As I have continued to mull over the idea of following recommended guidelines for peak performance, in this case God’s life directives to us in Scripture, I realized there is a flip side. The flip side is that one can overemphasize rule following. It’s not that there’s too much obeying, it’s about misunderstood outcomes. The intended result is out of alignment.
I have seen this in the workplace. I have seen colleagues overperforming, creating needless projects (extra work for themselves and others), spending all their waking hours immersed in their completion. Since work was good and important, completing more of it somehow made you a better person, they rationalized.
Or in personal dynamics, extra ‘doing’ can be compensation for past relational failures. Being super sweet now or extraordinarily helpful makes up for a bad or foolish action of the past, one hopes.
Even in Christian living you’ll see someone volunteering to do every ministry or attend every church event, sometimes to the neglect of other responsibilities. The heart may have good motives, but the head may not understand God’s purpose for ministry activity.
Having a strong work ethic, trying to restore a relationship, and doing ministry are all upright and important pursuits, but rule following for the sake of rule following leads nowhere. Just heeding the Manufacturer’s Instructions does not put your relationship with God into gear. Only faith in Jesus’ work on the cross for us, ignites the engine for a full life in Him. And once your life is energized through His mercy and grace for you, it will be a delight to adhere to the Owner’s Manual. “But because of God’s great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved,” Ephesians 2:5. “We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands,” 1 John 3:3.
