I Lost The Instructions

There is one thing you do not know.

One measurement, or one step in a sequence, or which way round a particular part goes. It was on a sheet of paper that came in the box, and the sheet is gone, and it has been gone for about eight months.

And the whole job has been stopped by it. Not the part that depends on it. The whole job.

That is the thing worth looking at, because it does not make sense on paper. There are six or seven things left to do and only one of them needs that missing piece of information. The other five or six could all be done tonight.

But they have not been, and that is not stupidity, and it is worth knowing what it actually is.

A gap in what a man knows does not sit quietly in the place it belongs. It spreads. It becomes a general sense of not being competent to proceed, and a man who does not feel competent does not start anything at all, including the parts he could do with his eyes closed.

You are a man who is short one piece of information, and not knowing something has never once been the same as not being able to do anything.

And upbraideth not

There is an offer in James about wisdom, and there is a clause on the end of it that is the reason it is the right verse here.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5, King James Version)

And upbraideth not.

Upbraid means to scold. To tell somebody off, especially for something they should have known already. And the verse goes out of its way to say that this does not happen.

Somebody thought that clause was necessary. That tells you what people expect when they admit to not knowing something, and it tells you that heaven knew about the expectation and answered it in advance.

You have an offer with the scolding removed from it in writing, and admitting a gap has never once been met with contempt from that direction. James 1:5 names the not upbraiding as part of the offer, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes that real to a man who has been embarrassed about a missing sheet of paper.

And look at the word liberally. Generously, freely, without measuring it out.

That is not the manner of somebody being asked for the fourth time. That is the manner of somebody who has been waiting to be asked.

You were never going to be charged for the asking, and a gap in what a man knows has never once been treated as a fault by the one who gives liberally. The Spirit of God is the one who gives without measuring, and James 1:5 says liberally and upbraideth not in the same breath, which is a deliberate pairing.

A gap does not have to be load bearing

So here is the practical claim, and it is the whole of this row.

One missing piece of information is stopping six pieces of work that do not need it.

That is worth saying slowly. Six things that do not depend on the missing page have not been done because of the missing page. The gap has been given authority over parts of the job it has nothing to do with.

You have a gap that has been given authority it was never issued, and one unknown thing has never once had any claim on six known ones. James 1:5 deals with a lack of wisdom as a specific thing to be supplied, and the Holy Spirit is the one who puts a gap back in its proper size.

And here is why it spreads, because it is not carelessness.

Not knowing a thing about a job a man is supposed to be able to do carries a specific feeling with it, and the feeling is not about that step. It is about whether a man should be attempting this at all.

You have a question sitting over that whole garage that was only ever about one joint, and a live doubt has never once confined itself to the step that raised it. So the sanding does not get done either, and the sanding was never in question at all. James 1:5 treats a lack as one specific thing to be supplied, and the Spirit of God is the one who keeps it from spreading across everything else.

You are being stopped by a question about yourself and not by a question about a joint, and a missing measurement has never once been an assessment of the man holding the tools. The Spirit of God is the one who answers the question underneath, and the written word specifies that nobody gets upbraided for asking.

And one more thing, which is the practical half. The information is almost certainly obtainable.

Somebody knows. A person at a counter knows, a neighbor knows, and asking any of them costs a minute and a small amount of pride, and the verse has already dealt with the pride.

You have a question that somebody can answer in a minute, and asking has never once cost more than eight months of a stopped job. James 1:5 sends a man to ask and promises he will not be scolded, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an ordinary question possible.

Do the part that does not depend on it

Here is the assignment and it deliberately leaves the gap alone.

Do one part of the job that does not depend on the missing information, and do it tonight.

Not the part you cannot do. One of the others. The sanding, the marking out, the second coat, the thing you know perfectly well how to do and have not done because of something unrelated.

You have at least one piece of that job in your hands tonight, and a part that never depended on the missing page has never once been blocked by it. James 1:5 supplies what is lacking rather than shutting down what is not, and the Holy Spirit is the one out there while a man does something he has always known how to do.

Do not solve the missing thing first. Do not go looking for the sheet. Do not spend the evening searching, which is how this evening usually goes and is why nothing gets built.

Do the part you can do. Thirty minutes is plenty.

And then, if you want, ask somebody tomorrow. Not tonight. Tonight is only for proving to yourself that five sixths of that job was never stopped at all.