I Can't Do That!

My memories take me back to when I was about 13 years old. I was on a farm with my uncle and he was backing a tractor into a machine shed to hook onto a wagon. Between my uncle on the tractor and the wagon that he wanted to hook onto, was a conveyor of some kind. It lay on the ground between them. Lee said to me, "Move that conveyor out of the way." I replied, "I can't do that!" He came back, "A big boy your size should be able to move that little thing," and he jumped down off the tractor and tossed it out of the way. His comment hurt my feelings, but when he wasn't looking, I reached down and sure enough I was able to move it.

Today, I was coming to work and there sat a car in the ditch with a young girl behind the wheel. I drove past her and then turned around and went to see if I could help. She had slid on the first snow of the season and barely missed a telephone box setting in the grass. I could see someone else had hit the same icy spot and drove right through the ditch and back onto the road. I kidded her a little bit and asked her why she was parked in the ditch. She didn't have much of a sense of humor.

I have recently hurt my back and yesterday was not a good day. I had no business trying to push her out of the ditch. But I suggested she straighten out her wheels and we would see if my help would be enough. Sure enough, as I was bent over the front of the car to push, she just backed it right out onto the road. My presence there meant nothing other than to give her the direction and encouragement to try. I am sure she could have done the same thing without me, but she didn't know she could. She thanked me and we both went our separate directions.

Ministry is much the same thing. It is helping people get their wheels straightened out (life) and then giving them an inspirational push to get out the pit or ditch that they are stuck in. Most of the time they could do it themselves if they just knew they could do it. What ditch are you stuck in? Do you need someone to give you a push? Think about it!