My Lego Life - Marnie Pohlmann

This week, like many of you, I plan to set up some Christmas decorations.  I am most excited about building my Lego Christmas train, along with the Lego toy shop. And this year I have more Lego. Some winter village pieces to expand the display.

Building Lego takes time, and sometimes it's just not that exciting. There needs to be foundational bricks snapped together in order to provide the strength and form to a structure before the more visually pleasing pieces can be attached. The moving pieces that provide action must have parts, often hidden within the bricks where they cannot be seen, that need to be placed together correctly to enable the outside pieces to move smoothly and properly.

The joy I feel after playing... umm... working with Lego, makes building the boring parts worth the time. Paying attention to the details of the plan is sometimes nit-picky but when everything moves and lights up as they should, the excitement just needs to be shared.

Occasionally I find others who enjoy building with Lego. We connect to spending time finding the tiny pieces that inspire fresh ideas. My grandson likes me to play Lego with him, but I started by sorting the Lego.

"Gramma, when are we going to play with the Lego?"

"I am playing with Lego."

"No, you're cleaning."

Yes, sometimes that is what I do. I organize the bricks. I enjoy seeing the colours and sizes in piles. Sometimes, I like to run my hands through the bricks and while others hear the clatter of pieces, I hear the stirring of creativity.

When I get new Lego, I build the item described in the directions. After I am done, I will eventually take the bricks apart and dump them all into my Lego bin with all the other Lego projects.

Later, I can sift through the bright plastic to find pieces that will build, once again, what the directions say they are to be used for. Alternatively, I can pull out a variety of pieces from my bins and build a unique creation. My imagination combines moving parts, gears, and wheels to design action into my new world.

What does Lego have to do with writing?

Lego is fun, like writing.

Lego is not always easy, like writing.

Lego takes time and concentration, like writing.

More importantly, though, Lego teaches me many lessons. 

Lessons such as how to deal with the difficulties in writing - or for that matter, in life.

Lego bricks can be used for building walls. Difficulties, too, can build walls. These walls may block our way and our joy, but they may also provide strength. I have experienced those kinds of walls more than once in my life. Sometimes pieces have been missing and I needed to learn new ways to build. Other times I have not paid attention to God's directions that would produce what He designed for me, which resulted in the wrong action, or no action, and being unable to shine God's light.

However, like I do with Lego, eventually God has redesigned my broken pieces of difficulty into a new creation. As writers, we try to build characters and plots using the difficulties we have experienced in life or that we imagine for a character's world. Sharing these stories, real or imagined, provides strength not only to our characters but to ourselves, as we build our own difficulties into new action and light.

God speaks, in His own writing, of how He rebuilds our new life from our broken pieces. In Ezekiel 37:6 (Msg) God say He is able and willing "to put new flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. (God) will breathe into you, and you will come to life."

When we are faced with difficulties, we can ask God to use them to build newness in us. We may need to do the work of rebuilding a firm foundation of our relationship with God, but that relationship will allow Him to turn our mourning and despair to joyous blessing and festive praise. (Is 61:3 Msg) Only God can breathe into us those inner pieces that provide excitement and allow His light to shine.

Writing the difficult stories is a way we, as writers, share with others the excitement of our rebuilt world. The new life given to us by God through Jesus, who we celebrate at Christmas, causes joyful praise that we need to share.

As you set out your Christmas decorations, consider what they teach you about God. That’s what I’ll be doing as I decorate with Lego.

Handling Blocks by Connie Inglis

I've always liked blocks. When I was young it was the vintage wooden blocks with colorful letters. It was always a balancing act, trying to stack them as high as possible. Soon after my son was born, that turned to Lego blocks. He and I would spend hours building out of our imaginations, inventing games with castle walls and catapults. Beautiful memories.

So when the question, "Why do blocks happen for you?" was posed this month, my eyes rested on the word "blocks" and that got me slightly side-tracked to ponder the question: Are blocks really a bad thing?

I feel that in this past month, a gigantic set of Lego blocks has been placed before me, before our family. You know the kind with 3000+ pieces--my month has been a jumble of that many pieces. With Lego I've never actually built anything that elaborate but the challenge intrigues me because I know it is possible. And that encourages me as I try to piece past events together--building from the inside out taking one block and putting it on another block, adding another block and so on and so forth until the project is complete, until some sense is made out of it all.

Writing involves the same kind of undertaking--building one thought upon another thought, one character trait upon another character trait, one relationship upon another relationship until the project is complete. Building blocks. 

The distractions of this past month have kept me from meeting my writing goals. But that doesn't mean I haven't written daily--a thought here, a thought there, an inspiration here, an inspiration there. Ideas, or blocks, for the future--God-given ideas. And even though these thoughts have been disjointed at times, it doesn't mean God can't take these blocks and use them to create something beautiful. That again gets me excited about playing with blocks, blocks of another kind.

And I am reminded of the lake that we camped at recently. I enjoyed sitting on the water's edge on a tranquil evening after a full day, the lake's surface a perfect mirror reflecting a kaleidoscope of colors on the west's horizon.  A time to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). A time to meditate and be thankful.

Yet the beautiful thing about a seemingly still lake is that underneath the surface, life is happening: Fish, crustaceans, frogs, insects, pondweed, grasses--all these life forms are moving under that surface. So even though it appears that the water is static, life below proves otherwise.

I have to believe that it is the same with my writing. That even though my pen has been relatively silent this past month, life is still stirring and creative juices are still flowing. And just as the lake's surface will not remain calm, so I know my pen cannot sit unused. To be a writer, I must write. God has taught me that the past month's experiences are not wasted. He will stir in me and the words will flow--He will turn my experiences into useful building blocks.

I don't have any astute words of wisdom to cure writer's block. If you look you can find a number of blog posts that deal with the issue.  But I have learned that sometimes it is okay to just sit by the quiet waters and let God fill you up. His filling will inspire because He is a good God and He loves to give good gifts to His children. Rather than beating yourself up over a feeling of ineptness, bask in His love and seek to know His love more and more. (Eph 3:14-21). That is truly what He desires for each of us. And I believe then the writing will come.

God is the Master builder. Ultimately, He is the one building masterpieces in and through our lives. And as Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) says, we are God's masterpiece. Ultimately, He is the one building us into something beautiful. He is the one using us to create works that speak His goodness and love into the world, thus glorifying His name. I rest in that knowledge.

Lego Taj Mahal