giant jingo

Sep 29

Balancing a Jenga life


Back in the day I discovered a pallet full of ceiling tiles in the barn on our farm. They were the white tiles that make up the suspended ceilings common in offices. I didn't know where they came from or how long they might be around, but their rectangular shape resembled that of playing cards, and that gave me an idea.

I set out to build a giant card house using ceiling tiles. One by one I stacked, leaned, shifted, re-stacked and adjusted until I had a house of sorts I could climb through. It all went well until Rusty, our Collie, showed up and decided to sprint through my creation. One after one the tiles tumbled and soon all that remained was a pile on the floor and a rising cloud of dust. Many years later I discovered Jenga, the game where you try to build the tallest tower possible by repeatedly shifting wooden blocks from the bottom to the top, always risking that the next move will cause it all to tumble down.

Giant card houses and Jenga are pretty good analogies for life. You shift an appointment here, move the timing of a life goal there, spend some here, save some there, invest in some education here, and nurture some faith there. Then look out! Here comes an unexpected medical event, job change, or family crisis. You shift some more life pieces and hope the whole thing you've built doesn't come crashing down.

Over the next several weeks we're excited to explore this Jenga/life analogy at Access. We'll look at pieces of life that I suspect we all struggle with balancing: priorities, how we get our sense of identity, money, time, and planning & spontaneity. Julie and I will reach into the scriptures and some more of our own life stories to find wisdom for balancing these important pieces of life and building them into a structure that will be a blessing to you and to others.

Do you know someone that's struggling with balancing all the pieces of life? I hope you'll invite them to come with you to Access this Sunday.

See you there!
Rich


Rich Rindfuss
Access Pastor
First United Methodist Church Richardson

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