So, given the choice would you rather be the stapler or the staple remover?  Ok, I know this sounds a bit off the wall but let’s take a closer look. On one hand we have the stapler; a prevalent instrument of found on almost every desk in America, if not the world.  The stapler, a device used to bind things together.  Now, let’s consider the staple remover.  Though an instrument not so universally prevalent it does at least enjoy a presence beside many copiers across the globe.  The staple remover, a device used to unbind the things that have been bound together by the staple.  Not that one would have to choose one over the other but an interesting dilemma nonetheless.   Given a choice would we rather be one who causes others to be bound together, perhaps even bound up or would we rather be a person whose purpose is to unbind others from the things that might have once bound them up.

While I certainly enjoy connecting people together, in particular in community I don’t like it when I find myself being the cause of someone being “bound up” by my tendency to have unspoken expectations or perhaps even a critical spirit borne out of my “recovering perfectionist” tendencies.  It’s true.  On one hand to be the stapler is good (i.e. connecting people), on the other really not so good at all.  But how is it to be the staple remover?  At every turn it seems a preferred role to be a person that unbinds others from what once held them captive so as to unleash them towards becoming more of who they’ve been designed to be.  Even as I’m writing this it comes to my mind that one is more about capture and the other is about the release.  Given the choice wouldn’t we rather spend our life’s energy on helping others experience the freedom from release?  For instance, wouldn’t we rather be used as an agent of healing as opposed to an agent of captivity?  As mentioned, to be used to bind others together is good, such as a three-stranded cord of relationship.  But in the end don’t the untold possibilities of a people unleashed get you pumped up?  Oh well, no right or wrong answer here it seems.  It’s just something to think on.  Come to think of it none of this would even been something to consider without the staple itself.  So it begs the question, “What are the staples in your life?” Peace.