Brian had an interesting day yesterday.
He had been sent to an auction yard 5 hours away in his big truck to pick up some items the company had bought. They load the items for you onto his semi and one of those items was a “seacan”. Now we all know what seacans are, those big metal boxes that we see on the back of trucks, on trains and even on tanker ships. People store their prized possessions in them because those things are indestructible!
Brian gets loaded, there is more than the building on this load and he straps everything down, he even commented that he had to use every strap he had on the truck to secure that load.
Much to his surprise as he is travelling along the highway, the seacan starts to come apart! Praise God that no one is hurt! When he goes back to investigate, he realizes that the “seacan” as it was sold as, is really built more like a tin shed and there is no way that shed can withstand the wind of blowing down the highway. Now what to do…. he is on the highway and has no way to get that thing off.
He knows a buddy is behind him in his semi and he calls for help. Now we have 2 very seasoned truckers working on this load and between them and another 12 straps (not those little ones, you and I have in our cars) they secure the building some more. A couple more hiccups down the highway but these guys get the job done, with the buddy following Brian watching and ensuring it is all holding together.
This story is full of all kind of analogies but the one that first comes to mind is that the metal box was presented under a name that it wasn’t; it looked like a metal box seacan but it was not. The reputation of “seacans” is secure, strong, reliable, indestructible and none of that was in question. Now if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it must be a duck but as Brian found out, it wasn’t.
I think we people can be like that, we get labelled as something that we are not and we end up believing it until the stress and strain of life come at us like a wind storm and we fall apart. We were not indestructible after all and we are left with some pieces missing and wondering what to do.
Call for help! God is available all the time, He never sleeps and when we call on His name, He is there. But God has also told us that we are not meant to do life and all the things that happen to us by ourselves. Some of us think we are indestructible, and we can do it ourselves and we will kill ourselves proving it. That is full on pride, thinking we are seacans but in reality God has built us more like tin sheds – strong but eventually stress will cause us to bend and break. God intended us to do life together, to help each other, to be there to support the load with each other.
God is the only one that is described as indestructible. People are not.
I met a lady who is elderly and she is raising her granddaughter a healthy little girl and grandma knows that this little one needs her but also a mommy and a daddy and the parents for various reasons are not in the picture. She decided to let a couple that she knows and trusts to adopt this little one, while she if fully still in the picture as grandma. She still sees her and has sleep overs and talks with her everyday, but this little one has a future with solid family walls set around her for her future. She was crying as she was telling me the story, oh how she loves that little one. It was so hard to do this after raising her since a baby but it is best for the child. Even when the child sometimes cry’s on the phone that she misses living with her grandma. She asks grandma who will sing her to sleep at night and grandma says that she will sing to her every sleep over but that when she is not there the little girl can sing the song that she has taught her to her stuffies and she can be the singer.
God does that for us, He has taught us by His word, the Bible and given us what we “need”. We are His children and He often does not give us what we “want” even if we beg and plead, rather He gives us what we “need” and in the end it turns out to be the best thing ever. He after all knows how we are made, not as rigid steel boxes but as human beings.
To many times in my life I have considered my stubborn self to be a solid and unbreakable steel box, but in fact time after time it has been proven that I am fully human with limitations just like everyone else. Why do we wait until things are falling apart before we ask for help? This loving grandma has the foresight to engage with help early for the sake of her granddaughter. God in His love for us, has given us Jesus and the Holy Spirit to walk with us on this journey of life, even before we were born He had a plan in place, now that is foresight!
Some of us are too stubborn to follow the plan thinking that we, ourselves know what is best for us. At some point, every single one of us needs help.
I gave this very famous illustration to my ladies yesterday: you know the flood hits and the farmer starts praying, “God save me!” A guy in a boat comes by and says to climb on board but the farmer says, “no, God will save me.” The water rises, another boat comes by but the farmer shakes his head and yells, “No God will save me.” The water rises and the farmer has to get on the roof, a helicopter comes by to save him but he still insists that God will save him so he refuses the ride. He drowns. When he gets to heaven he asks God why He did not save him. God and I am sure in an incredulous tone, replies: “I sent 3 people to save you but you refused help each time.”
Some of us are waiting for the thunder and lightening “saving” stuff when God can often use regular folks like us to show up and take a load off or in some cases help strap a load down!
Do not wait until the building is becoming unhinged and pieces are being blown around in the storm, do not say “no” to help offered because who knows, perhaps God sent that person your way in answer to your prayers.