Flat-pak Faith

There was a fad in the mid 1970s that excited the inner architect/engineer/mechanic of middle-aged men throughout the land.  The aluminium shed flat-pak kit arrived at every Sears, Canadian Tire, and local hardware store in the country.  “So easy, a 12 year-old can put it together” they said.  “Every nut, bolt, and screw included” they said.  “Easy sliding doors to give wide access” they said.

Of course my dad wanted one.  Our neighbour, Doug, wanted one.  Eventually the two of them teamed up to haul their respective kits home and help each other work through the “it-can’t-go-wrong” process.  For the most part, the sheds did go together with relative ease.  I do remember, though, several, “Don’t you think it would be better if we . . .” conversations.  That inner design drive just could not be suppressed.  The repercussions of mid-assembly engineering changes often resulted in a “better go back and do it like it is in the plans” kinds of discussions.

Fast forward several decades and we have another flat-pak fad: the “follow-the-happy-face” furniture that goes together with the included Allen wrench.  My experience is these pieces do go together eventually . . . even if some of the directions are counter-intuitive at times.

You have to admire the genius of the engineering and design teams that put these kits together.  Since they are mass produced, there will always be glitches.  But, in general, they do exactly what they promise to do.  Open the package, follow the instructions carefully, and voilà, the promised product is up and functioning.

Wouldn’t it be nice if faith were the same way?  

Imagine flat-pak faith.  We embrace the truth of the Gospel and begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We suddenly find happy faces in our Bibles that give us all the important tips for divine blessing.  We also see the sad faces warning us against missteps that will result in a serious malfunction of faith.  As our flat-pak skills increase we are able to “build” increasingly more complex life structures.  Slowly, faith-project by faith-project we level up our skills until we hit Master Assembler status and live in almost perfect piety.  

Living by faith isn’t like that.  The Apostle Paul lamented his own personal struggle in Romans 7 (“I do things I don’t want to do, I don’t do things I know I should!”).  The disciples, after three years with Jesus, saw living by faith as a competitive sport (“Which of us is the GOAT?” - Luke 22:24).  In Mark 9 they are irritated at the “competition” - others who were preaching about the Kingdom of God but were not part of their group.

Learning to live by faith is a highly personalized process . . . personalized by the Holy Spirit.  For Job, it included unspeakable personal loss and a dysfunctional support system.  For Joseph it meant being bullied by his brothers and then humiliated by false accusations.  For Saul it meant struggling with blindness and spending three years in relative obscurity while he re-learnt what it meant to serve God faithfully.  For Philemon it meant learning to forgive and restore a slave who had abandoned him.

God also uses amazing experiences as part of our transformational life-learning plan.  Moses was able to converse with God on the mountain.  Elijah performed miracles.  Isaiah had a vision of God in His throne room.  Esther experienced supernatural intervention through the most “normal” of political processes.  We can probably identify our own “WOW” moments if we pause to reflect on God’s work in our lives.  His fingerprints of grace are everywhere.

This cannot be an automated or prepackaged process.  It is not about jumping through hoops of spirituality so we can “level up” in our maturity.  It is about acquiring the skill to see everything around us as being part of God’s created order.  We embrace the truth that all of life is lived in His presence.  We develop a forward- and upward-looking perspective that our greatest hope is both now (that God is engaged) and future (that God will resolve all things to His glory).  God knows we will never be perfect (in this life).  He also promises to give us what we need so we can keep on plodding.  

Because this is a skill we learn, we will sometimes “get it wrong.”  We will make mistakes.  We will attempt to insert our own engineering and design modifications.  We will sin.  Even in that we can learn of God’s forgiveness and restoration (1 John 1:9).  

Flat-pak faith is not real.  Instead, the Creator/Designer/Engineer has given each of us a unique life-construction process which will be assembled with the Allen wrench of His grace, one process at a time.  Just like flat-pak, it will sometimes be confusing and frustrating.  Unlike flat-pak, it will always produce phenomenal results (when we let it!).