The Original, Not the Multitool
I could call it the “tool trudge”. It’s the walk from our house to our detached garage, usually with a handful of tools in my hand. It’s a walk to return the tools to their place after somehow finding their way into the house for some random projects. It’s not a far walk but it’s one of those that makes you think twice. Or maybe I should lobby for a second tool chest in the house!
I blame multitools for this. Sometimes it’s my fault that tools from the garage find their way into the house. Sometimes it’s our son’s fault! But all of us agree that our frustration with multitools is what drives us to use the real tools that are in the garage.
Inside the house are lots of hobby items and small things that could use work. Our son Levi got on the multitool kick a few years ago and has a few that he keeps at the ready. These multitools have a ton of neat features and fold up into a small package. They proclaim to have 30 or more tools for your enjoyment and work…all you have to do is figure out how to open the contraption up and work it without severing your hand, puncturing your palm, or stabbing some skin.
To make a multitool work they use much smaller versions of the real tools. Things are shrunk down to fit. Things are slender, fold up, or call for assorted bits to be used, which means more small parts to keep track of. But fear not! There is usually a nice carrying case so you can take it all with you. To get everything to fit requires adaptations of the original design.
The frustrating part is that none of the tools really work as well as the individual item. And that’s why we make the tool trudge out to the garage to get the real item. The multitool is a tool of last resorts. We typically leave just the pliers or the screwdriver out because it’s the one tool that we can count on to use the most. And to be honest, I have a hard time figuring out how to fold it up to access another tool. The other items are just along for the ride!
Out in the garage our tools live in a bigger kingdom. They have an independent life where they are not pinned together with others but they still live among the other tools. They have a specific design and purpose. Screwdrivers drive screws. Hammers hammer. Saws cut. It’s simple and effective and everyone lives under the roof of the mighty kingdom of the tool chest. The individual design of a tool resides in the company of others that have their own unique purpose. It’s community without being modified to be fit and pinned together with others.
That’s a lot of tool talk to get to a point of people, what we are tethered to, and who we serve. It’s been in my heart and mind for years that far too often we are quick to sell out into a multitool lifestyle rather than embrace the freedom of being a tool in God’s tool chest.
Being in community is important. I think we all crave that to a point. But sometimes that longing to be among others comes at the expense of not following through on God’s will for our lives. As long as we are in the community that’s enough. We lose our independence of being dependent on God and replace it with a comfort of being accepted and pinned together with others.
It’s pretty sneaky, this multitool life. Lines are being drawn and rosters are being made every day. You can be lumped into others with the same political posture. Or with others that fight the same cultural battle. Maybe you put your favorite football team as the most important thing to be tethered to. It can be a school, a town, or a part of the country that pulls and provides the exclusive community we seek. It could be a social club or even a certain place of worship. Even churches can turn into a multitool. We can give up a lot by settling for the multitool life. We can lure others into that decision without even realizing it as well.
It shouldn’t be this way. The kingdom of God is a big place. That’s the community. It’s a level above the flags we wave for our other communities. Every group, every bunch, every system falls under the big Kingdom. Our residence is in His big tool chest, among all the other tools!
We are an independent bunch with a mighty purpose and design. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. The tool chest is the community, not the scaled-down and neatly packaged. Some tools need the other tools to show them how important their design and function truly is.
I’m not a Biblical scholar but I can see how many groups wanted Jesus to serve them and only them. They wanted Him to jump on the multitool concept so as to give them credibility. But He didn’t. He came for all of mankind. That’s pretty wild! Some choose to follow and some don’t. But many wanted Him to commit to their group and leave others behind. He would be an asset to their multitool if he joined them and a threat when He didn’t. He was a big tool chest guy, that Jesus! He knew the kingdom he served and it wasn’t just the communities that were already packged together.
I like the engineering of a multitool. It’s a modern marvel and a testament to an engineering mind that so many things can be packaged together. But it’s a complex system and sometimes so frustrating it’s better to take the tool trudge out to the garage kingdom for the specific and reliable tool.
You are part of the tool chest. You’ve been invited to take residence there. It’s a big place. When you see things from that perspective it changes all of the communities that fall under it. Our place of purpose is in the hands of the One that made us. He uses us to change the communities we find ourselves within. We are in His hands first and foremost. Everything on earth can change; the politics, the communities, the social groups, the churches, and even our favorite football teams, when we align ourselves with Him first. The toolbox is not absent of community, it IS the community!
