I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
Have you looked down your bathtub drain lately?
It’s probably just a black hole, and as long as the water drains you don’t even think about it.
But you know what? A lot of things had to be done just right for that drain to work.
Think of a typical ranch house here in Florida built on a concrete slab. An architect designs the house and creates a blueprint. Then every person that works on the house works off the blueprint.
One thing on the blueprint is the plumbing. Before they pour the concrete slab, a plumber has to install all the pipes in the exact right places, including that bathtub drain.
That drain has to be in the perfect spot. He can’t just eyeball it. He can’t just say, “This feels right.” He has to put the drainpipe EXACTLY where the blueprint says to put it.
Why? Because they are going to pour concrete around it. It will literally be set in stone. Yes, it can be moved. I was part of a drain moving operation at a church one time, and it involved jackhammers and sweat and grumbling. No one in their right mind would choose to put the drain in the wrong place so that they could move it later. It would be what we call in the south “ig-nernt.”
That bathtub drainpipe has to be in the exact right spot because one day a guy is going to walk in carrying a bathtub. He’s going to set it down, look down that drain hole, and he’d better see nothing but a black hole, perfectly lined up.
Can you imagine how well the plumber has to do his job for the bathtub drain to be perfectly lined up? It’s a marvel! But that’s what the blueprint is for.
The plumber doesn’t go in and try to figure it out on his own. He doesn’t ask his buddy, “Hey, does this look good?” He has to follow the blueprint.
And now listen. We have a blueprint for life. Life on this planet was created by the Architect, with a capital A, and He has a blueprint for how everything goes together. If we follow the blueprint, our life works properly, and if we ignore the blueprint, it doesn’t work right.
Jesus used a construction analogy at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven. He basically said that if we follow His blueprint, His teachings, then we are like a wise man who builds his house well. But if we don’t follow God’s blueprint, we are like a man who builds his house foolishly.
For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to forgive. Our blueprint for life is to “forgive men their trespasses.” Forgiveness works! It’s in the blueprint! But what if we don’t feel like forgiving? What if we have a hundred reasons to not forgive?
The plumber might have a hundred reasons to put the bathtub drainpipe somewhere else, but he MUST put it where the blueprint says to put it or it won’t work. He will have missed the mark.
What is another word for “missing the mark?” Sin.
In the original language, the word sin comes from the Greek and Hebrew words which mean “to miss the mark.” To sin is literally to miss the mark. It’s putting the pipe anywhere but where the blueprint says to put it.
If we don’t forgive, we are missing the mark, ignoring the blueprint, and building our life poorly. This applies to everything God told us to do. His words are the blueprint.
What if you don’t like words like sin and obedience. Well, think of it in terms of Jesus’s construction analogy. Sin is missing the mark, which is not following the blueprint, which is putting the pipes wherever you feel like.
Obedience is hitting the mark, following the blueprint, putting the pipes right where the blueprint says to put them.
For some reason we think of obedience to God as optional, but we sure don’t want the plumber thinking of the blueprint as optional when he’s building our house.
Why not? Because we want it built well, not poorly.
And the same is true for our life. We want it built well not poorly, and for that, we have to follow the blueprint of the architect, with a capital A.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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