Power Tools

Perhaps you remember an old sit-com with Tim Allen called "Home Improvement." The father in this show (played by Tim Allen) was the host of a show that taught about repairs to the house. He was always trying to "super-charge" any tool to make it more powerful. His antics lead to lots of laughs.

Once you begin to use power tools you start to see the appeal that they had over Tim. Something about driving a nail with the touch of a button or sawing a board with a power saw really does make a man want to grunt with glee (a far less manly show from what I can tell) over the power that he holds in his hands.

I spent some time working with my power tools last week. I was moving my study to a different room. [As an aside, please notice that a pastor has a "study," not an "office," because his primary task is to study the word of God.] In the process of moving I needed to cut the top shelf off of each of my bookshelves because the new room had lower ceilings. I then had to re-assemble all of those shelves into a new book-shelf. Then I had to build one more bookshelf in a size that would fit the new room. It felt good to use the nail-gun, the mitre saw, the circular saw, a drill, and an impact driver. There is a real sense of satisfaction tearing things up and building new things out of them. In the words of an even older TV show that I rarely saw (The A-Team), "I love it when a plan come together."

This move made me notice something I had not previously considered. I enjoyed using my power tools. But the entire reason I was using them was so that I will hopefully do a better job in using the ultimate power tool. The Bible is the word of God. It is the basis for my ministry. The books in my study are there to help me understand, obey, and communicate the Bible in a better way. While regular power tools are helpful for putting up bookshelves, God's book is essential for life. From the Bible we learn about successful life, not only now, but for all of eternity. I'll continue to use my power tools. But I hope that I never drift away from the one power tool that has the power to "give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15).