0:00:00 - 0:00:31 All right, this is my dog Sophie and uh she's standing in front of this bench and I wanna show you this bench. Uh I made this, the actual bench part is wood and then there's this metal holder thingy. Um So here's the story. Um So my uh turn this around. So my wife got this bench uh from a neighbor that 0:00:31 - 0:00:50 was just gonna throw it away. And uh I didn't know about this. I came home one day and there's this huge bench thing and she's like, look at this bench. I got for free and I immediately just went, oh, and she said, what, what, what's wrong? And I said this thing is a piece of junk and she's like, no 0:00:50 - 0:01:10 , no, no, because it came with, it had a metal uh bench with like canvas cover and the canvas was all jacked up. And she said, no, it'll be a piece of cake. I'm just gonna get some new canvas and sew it on there. I said that is gonna take forever. That is gonna take forever and it's not gonna last. And 0:01:10 - 0:01:30 then, uh I'm gonna end up having to either throw this thing away. Um, which means, like, take it apart and find a way to get it into the dumpster or, um, I'm gonna have to take time out of my schedule and things that are more important to fix this thing up for you. And she's like, no, no, no, it'll be 0:01:30 - 0:01:50 fine. So sure enough she tried and failed to make a canvas thing. She had to enlist a friend of hers who's really good at sewing and has a fancy sewing machine. And in the end, they, they spent all this time, they spent the money on the canvas and they put it out here and it lasted one summer and then 0:01:50 - 0:02:15 the thing ripped apart. And, uh, in the meantime, the, the holder thing, what is this thing? The stand, whatever. Uh, it's made of metal, it's pretty solid. Um, and I repainted it for her and I took time too. Uh, and it took money. I happened to have the paint but whatever. So, um, after it got destroyed 0:02:15 - 0:02:40 , I took four Saturdays to build this wooden version and it's, it's rock solid and I, I painted it with some pretty high quality paint. So it should last for a while. But the point is that, uh, my wife thought that having this bench would be a good thing because she has less awareness than I do in, uh 0:02:40 - 0:03:01 , handyman type stuff. Um, she didn't realize that the value that she saw in this bench was, uh, artificially inflated from reality. And I took one look at it. I said this is a piece of junk. You really should have called me. I would have told you to leave it there and, uh, now we're somewhat committed 0:03:00 - 0:03:31 . So, um, not only did it not yield what she was expecting. Um And not only did it eat up at least four of my Saturdays, which are very valuable, um, from doing something more important. Um It also took away those things that were more important which lie beyond the awareness that she has. Um And are 0:03:30 - 0:03:55 way more valuable than a stupid bench. So, um this is a really good microcosm for the way that we treat the Lord and the way that he treats us, um because my wife got this bench, she probably had a pretty good idea that I think it was a piece of junk and she got it anyway without a so a strong solid 0:03:54 - 0:04:16 counter argument to that. And then uh I stopped what I was doing and painted the metal frame and then I stopped what I was doing for a much longer time and I made this bench. So now we have this nice bench and it's gonna last for a while and that's good, but it's not as good as what I could have done 0:04:16 - 0:04:34 if I didn't have to make this bench. And so a lot of times the things that we desire from God, we don't stop and realize that he knows way better than us what's good and what the value of things are and the benches are gonna wear out and that there's better things to do than spend your time building 0:04:34 - 0:04:57 a bench and painting. Even the painting is what really took a long time. So it's really important that we trust in him and we trust in his value system and understand that it's far beyond ours. And the absolute best thing that we can do in our lives is adopt the purpose of God. So adopt His purposes 0:04:56 - 0:05:05 because they're higher, they're better than our purposes. So I invite you to think about that next time you're sitting on an awesome bench.