Part of the Picture

Not too long ago I attended a retreat for work.  An hour of the day was designated for “Team Building Exercises.” (Everybody groan.)

Actually, I’m one of those rare people who likes team building exercises. Such exercises lack the benefits of organic conversation, but the larger and more segmented an office becomes, the more helpful forced interaction can be.  Otherwise you can go months and barely know more than the name of the person two cubicles down. (Sad, but true.)

I had my concerns about this particular team building exercise when I saw hoola hoops and a rope and a small stuffed pig.  But my concerns were quickly laid to rest.  The rope was merely placed in a pile in the middle of the hoola hoop and we had to discuss, without reaching beyond the edge of the ring, whether pulling an end of the rope would produce a knot.  I never did see what the pig was used for.

At the conclusion of some introductory exercises, we embarked on the grand finale.  Each person was given a picture that was part of a larger story board.  Without showing our picture to anyone, we had to identify where in the larger story we fit and line up in order.  With close to 50 people in the room, this was no small task. Conversations erupted as we began grouping ourselves into related clumps and growing our line.  The story began to take shape until we were all in order and did our “big reveal,” turning the pictures around to see the whole story.

There are several lessons that can be taken from this exercise.  The importance of communication, the idea that we are all part of a larger story, the understanding that we all had to work together in order to see the big picture.  But perhaps one of the strongest lessons for me was one of trust.  We each had to trust that others in the line were doing their part.  I could not be everyplace at once.  I could not be filling in some other part of the story; I had to focus on my own part.

This is a wonderful exercise for the office, and an even better one for the Church.  Our lives are like those individual pictures, each part of a larger story.  We will never see all the pieces in our lifetime, but our job is not to worry about all the pieces; it is to worry about our own.  God has given each one of us a place in the body of Christ and a specific job to do (1 Corinthians 12).

There may be things we don’t understand, but we have to remember that our perspective is only one tiny slice of the larger picture.  We need to trust that God is orchestrating the big picture, even when we don’t see how our piece – or someone else’s – fits in.

There are plenty of times things just plain don’t make sense from our perspective.  That’s okay.  Remember, it didn’t make sense to the disciples that Jesus was crucified.  That didn’t fit into their picture of Israel’s Messiah at all.  And yet Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection have made it possible for all of us to be brought back into fellowship with God.  God knew what He was doing, even if his disciples didn’t.

All around us there are pieces of the larger picture that do not make sense to us, but we have God’s promise that He is still in control.  Someday Jesus will return, and when we are joined with Him in heaven, there will be a “Big Reveal” unlike anything we can imagine now.  We will suddenly see how God used our tiny little sliver as part of the larger picture.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:18-19).