Measuring up

The annual spring roundup has begun, not to gather in four-legged critters and such, but to corral the multitude of stray hand tools that survived winter projects only to be misplaced before making their way back into the toolboxes. And what is it that goes missing in the most numbers? Year in and year out, it’s utility knives that hold a decisive edge in the tool repatriation process. Until now.

By no particular volition on my account, steel tape measures seem to have taken the lead this spring, some purchased some inherited, and others (for no apparent reason) appearing out of nowhere. At last count there were over sixteen in the main tool box all representing particular ages, lengths, widths, markings and working condition. Several constituted first purchases, like those with locking mechanisms or others that were easy to retract. Nearly all are of a yellow variety. Others are colorful in their own right or fit the palm in a particular way that makes one take notice.

Bigger is not always better. In younger days, the ultimate prize in steel tapes was a 35-foot monster with fancy clip-on brackets, lots of fake chrome, and enough weight to tug your pants lower after just a few steps. Using it a short time, its limited value became clear. It definitely was a handling liability compared to the smaller 10- or 12-foot tapes that are just perfect for finish work. The entire collection is augmented even further by a dozen or so straight and folding measures. And the measure that get the least use? the laser one, you know the kind you replace the battery in every five years whether it needs it or not.

While specific measurements can make or break particular projects, sometimes ballpark estimates serve the purpose just as well. When it comes to church, what were the standards you are given as a child? Did you measure up to them and the demands of the church? How can we measure up to the expectations set before us regarding faith? How do we begin to qualify them? Here are three possibilities.

First set aside the need to track metrics to the nth degree. How we grow in faith is more important than how we grow in numbers. Measuring births, baptisms, marriages, deaths, and presumably souls saved can be a helpful exercise for those who equate numbers with thriving ministry. But those standards quickly fall by the wayside when we ask more revealing questions such as how to love our neighbor or what Jesus would do in a particular situation.

Second measuring up in the church means embracing the mystery, something that is very often difficult to describe or enumerate and that is looked upon with suspicion. Without divine mystery we are adrift in a sea of human certitude that does little to grow faith. Ask gentle questions but to not be content with pat answers.

Third, know that there are things we will never fully grasp and that we should learn to be content with that. The linear nature of time is one example. What might challenge that notion for us? There are many answers, though none complete. Incomplete answers call on us to be patient with ourselves, our neighbors and with God. How will we measure our response to such challenges? I’m willing to loan a few steel tapes out to both challenge and inspire. How evil we use them? (kf)