By Doug Shamblin

It’s fun to watch children build towers out of dominoes, jenga sticks, Lego blocks, cards, and other items. Most of the time when they are creating and designing, the destruction crew takes over and the construction phase must begin again.

Many of us can identify with the towers in the children’s play. We build our lives until something comes along and knocks us down. Then the rebuilding process begins again.

What Are You Building?

We have seen makeshift shrines along the highway marking locations where people have lost loved ones in accidents. 

In a nearby town, after the death of a young child, the family built a park so children would have a place to play near the baseball fields. The park has become a focal point in the community for events for children, including giving away presents at Christmas and school supplies in the fall. But the main idea behind this program and park is that they want to honor God by serving the least of these.

Is It Right?

What kind of “tower” are you building? Does it honor God, or yourself? We are free to grow, but we are not free to supplant God.

The people who gathered to build the tower at Babel wanted to create a monument to themselves, a testament to their own greatness. When they planned to make a name for themselves, they crossed the line with God. That’s why “the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city” (Genesis 11:8).

Four words point to decline in your life if you are focused on them. They are I, me, my, and mine. We stop seeing others when we focus on ourselves. Let’s open our eyes and serve so we can see and show Jesus.

Doug Shamblin lives in Pomeroy, Ohio with his wife, Sherry. He has served churches and parachurch organizations in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. He is the director of children’s ministries with the Middleport (Ohio) Church of Christ and chaplain for the Middleport Police Department.