Assembly Lines

 

The name Henry Ford will forever be directly associated with the creation of the assembly line. Before 1913, manufacturing a car took a team of workers over twelve hours to completely assembly an automobile. Ford, who had watched the process by which meat was being processed and packaged, believed that a similar process in the manufacturing world would increase production and decrease the amount of time spent constructing an auto. His idea was to create a conveyor system where one person would add their particular piece to the future automobile progressing from one station to the next, approximately 80-90 positions, until the vehicle reached the end and was ready to roll out the door and onto the road. Ford's genius equated to a process that reduced the manufacturing time down from twelve hours to one that took little over an hour to complete. This experiment in specializing each step in the manufacturing process created an explosion of assembly line type strategies which revolutionized manufacturing in the early 20th century and catapulted America into the role of an international leader for manufactured goods. 

 

Assembly lines and manufacturing just make sense, they go together almost as seamlessly as peanut butter and jelly, or cheeseburgers and french fries. Where assembly lines do not fit in so effortlessly is in the area of life. We as humans are moving along a trajectory, but in our lives the pieces aren't laid out for us to pick up along the conveyor of life. Instead, we are given the free will to make choices and decisions along our path and those decisions ultimately "assembly" us into the man or woman we are, or better yet the man or woman we become. Imagine Ford's assembly line, but instead of it being a straight-line conveyor system, God's conveyor belt forks off to the right or left each time we make a decision. Right or wrong, forward guiding, or backward dragging, God allows us to make our own choices. With that being said, when we make our choices there are consequences and outcomes from any and all decisions we make. 

 

The question comes down to this, how do we know what the right choices are? How do we know that the choice we make is going to be conducive to the completion of our lives as servants of God? What instruction manual do we have that can assure us we are getting the parts of the whole assembled in the way God designed us to be assembled? These are critical questions, and for those that do not have a personal relationship with God these are questions that keep us from becoming a functioning member of the community in which we live. Fortunately, we have direct access to answer the questions above, and we have God as the Master Assembler of our lives. 

 

Having free will to make life's choices doesn't mean that all of our choices will be productive and beneficial decisions. Poor judgment, bad advice, and miscalculated outcomes have hindered many a man or woman as they traverse their way along life's assembly line. Where an assembly line has a straight-line path, life's path is all about the curves we navigate, the bumps and cracks in the highway that we overcome, and most importantly, the time we take to learn what God truly has planned for our lives. The time we invest with God enables us to make sound decisions along the path we journey. 

To have a better understanding of the path God has for our life, we must have a relationship with God. That relationship is one developed over time, time that provides us with confidence that the choices we make and the paths we follow are not just predestined because we are on some sort of conveyor belt. The time we spend studying God's Holy Bible, and the time we commit to meet with God daily and talk with him personally, will provide us with clarity and purpose as we visualize the plan God has for this life He gave us to live. 

 

When Joshua was appointed as the successor of Moses, the Israelites were definitely not on a conveyor belt ride to the Promised Land. Throughout their journey in the wilderness the chosen nation did not appear to have a road map to anywhere. Along their journey, idolatry had become rampant. Worshiping false "gods" had become common practice, yet Joshua stood firm in his decision to follow God's plan for the nation of Israel. In Joshua 24:14-15 we read the words of Joshua as he proclaims his faith and trust in the one, true God. “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

 

For over 100 years automobiles have been manufactured utilizing an assembly line model. Advances have been made in how that actually looks, yet the methodology still persists. It works for "things" to be put together along an assembly line. I thank God that we are not moving along an assembly line in life. Free will makes us unique in that area and we must choose who we will follow and what will guide our choices and the decisions we make. I choose God and I pray for His guidance each day as I make the decisions I am faced with and the choices I make. My question for you today is this, are you allowing the world to "assembly" your thoughts and plans? If so, turn from the conveyor belt of this world and make the decision to allow God to direct your steps. That decision will change your world. 

Coach Carter