Friday, August 8, 2008

Handyman


Yesterday I used my day off to "fix things". First the continuously running toilet...then the broken wall switch...the garbage disposal...the electric lawnmower. What for most is such an easy mechanical task is for me the climbing of Mt. Everest. Every little handyman job I tackle has the making of a very long and disastrous day. I can never take lightly a fix-it job whether it be the changing of the ballast in the fluorescent light fixture or the replacement of a faucet. Each has its own dragon to conquer. First I worked on the toilet...prayed fervently. It stopped leaking. On to the wall switch. After two trips to Home Depot and some kindergarten level instructions from a store employee along with much more prayer...the light worked. On to the garbage disposal. Prayed with greater fervency than I can describe. Put it in...and it leaked. Discovered where the leak was, resealed the pipe...and it worked. Moved on to the front lawn and after more prayer and contemplation of what it would be like to use a push mower (the lawn looks afterword like the haircut you got from your dad)the mower started...and worked the entire time. Not sure I understand anything much about how "things" work but I do know about Jesus dependency. I thought afterword how it would have been if after praying none of the tasks went well. That has happened...and will happen again it would seem. My reading during my time alone with God came from Galatians 3 Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God. The Christian life is more about faith than it is about getting anything done...But it is nice when something does get done. Both the faithful and unfaithful succeed and fail but only the faithful gain anything in the end...a life right with God.

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