“They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks….’” (Genesis 11:3)

We are so certain in our judgment of history:

I would never build a monument to myself! I would never devote my life’s work to mere human achievement!

And maybe you’re right. Maybe we aren’t deliberately blueprinting the tower of us.

But the problem in Babel didn’t start with the building.

It started with the bricks.

Make bricks, and make enough of them, and watch what happens when you stack them up.

So what are the smaller things you’re getting, making, or desiring for yourself? Dollars? Possessions? They might not look like a monument to your own glory when you have just a few of them lying around—but watch what happens as you seek more, and you start to stack them up. A thing God placed in your hands, if it is stewarded only for your security or enjoyment, turns into a Babel-brick before you know it.

So let’s count the materials of life as a real gift, yes, but let’s be wary of how we deploy them.

— Tyler