I Can Do It All By Myself!

I had just spent the past two hours snow blowing and shoveling after a January storm had dumped five inches of wet, heavy snow.

When I was done, I decided to check how the roads were and drive my truck to a local grocery store that had a postal box in which I would place an outgoing letter.

On my way back to my house, I noticed an older woman, who I estimated was in her eighties, shoveling the wet, heavy snow from her very long and large driveway. Since I didn’t have a shovel, I drove past her house and continued on my way home.

At home, my conscience got the best of me as I continued to think about that woman. So, I loaded up a couple of shovels in the back of the truck and headed out to her house six blocks away.

When I arrived, I grabbed one of the shovels and started to walk to her house.

“What do you think that you are doing?” she asked me.

“I’m going to help you shovel your driveway.” I told her as I continued to walk up her driveway.

“No, you’re not!” she said as she stood her ground blocking me from coming further.

“I’m not going to charge you,” I explained. “I want to do it for free!”

“Why?” she further inquired.

I told her that I had just shoveled and snow blowed my house and explained how heavy the snow was. I wanted to do something nice.

“Well I don’t need your help!” she said harshly.

“I can do it all by myself! I have a snow blower and if I thought it was too hard to do, I would use that. Or else I would call my son and ask him to come over. No thank you, I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP!”

I turned around, walked towards my truck, placed the shovel in the back, and then drove home and helped a neighbor get shoveled out as I pondered the encounter with the older woman a short time before.

I pondered further…why would anyone turn down help when someone offers to help?

I wasn’t offended, but I found it strange that she would be so harsh in her rejection of my offer to help her. Why would someone turn down help; especially when it is free? 

I had been gracious, accommodating, and generous. I had just spent several hours and really didn't need "one-more-thing-to-do". I saw her and came to her with all that she would need to get the job done. I was planning on having her take a break so that I could shovel the whole driveway by myself.

I was offering because I understood what she was going through. I had just walked (metaphorically) in her boots. I knew the weight that she was carrying. I knew how much pain she was (potentially) going through.

I finished the shoveling at my neighbor's and decided to get the snowblower out to make the alley wider so that cars could get through easier. 

While using the snowblower, a neighbor from up the block walked over to where I was working and asked me if he could pay me to shovel his sidewalk when he goes out of town for the month of February. I told him that I would be happy to take care of it for him.

He asked me what I would charge and I told him that I would be happy to just take care of it for free. He was insistent and said that he would stop by before he left on his trip to see his daughter. Although he was very strong, he knew that he needed my help (because he was going to be 1500 miles away) and was willing to pay for it. 

After he left, I pondered some more...about how so many times people turn down help from the Lord even though He is reaching out and offering His help. He isn't charging for His help; in fact He already paid the ultimate price with His death, burial, and resurrection.

Why would anyone turn down help from the Lord when He offers to help us? He, too, walked "in our boots". He, too, knows the weight of what we carry. He, too knows the pain we go through. 

God doesn't help those who help themselves. Instead:

He asks us to seek Him:

"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord..." (Jeremiah 29:13-14a)

He asks us to call to Him: 

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:3)

He asks us to come to Him:

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am  gentle and  lowly in heart,  and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28)

He asks us to rest in Him:

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalm 37:7a)

He cares deeply about what we are going through and longs to help us:

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

I put the snowblower away and went inside grateful for how the Lord continues to call out to me even when I choose to try it on my own first. Grateful that He doesn't turn me away when I come back to Him and ask for His help, after realizing how much I need Him. 

Grateful that I have a Savior who is sympathetic with my weakness and my need for help:

"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Stuck in an Elevator Between the 7th and 8th Floor

I was thinking about elevators the other day just before going with Cathy to watch the Minnesota Wild play the Ottawa Senators. I’m not sure why.

I was pondering how some people really struggle with a fear of elevators.

For some it is “claustrophobia”, which is the fear of enclosed spaces. Because an elevator is a small and confined box, it is easy to see how it could cause a claustrophobic reaction. 

For others it is “agoraphobia”, which is the fear of being trapped in a situation in which escape would be difficult or impossible should a panic attack occur.

For others it is the fear of being stuck between floors in an elevator; which has no name.

Trapped, stuck with (seemingly) no way of ever getting out….

As my mind pondered this, I found myself taking stairs at the Excel Energy Center instead of taking the elevators. Cathy probably thought that I was just being healthy by using the stairs.

And yet, did you know that elevators are safer than cars? They really are.

And still many people struggle with this fear.

As I pondered this, I realized how this was an allegory for how people can actually get stuck in real life between a problem and a solution.

Specifically, I was pondering how many people, when struggling with area of sin in their life, will head to Romans chapter seven in the Bible.

In this section of scripture, the Apostle Paul deals with the very real struggle of sinning and not sinning. Paul wrote:

 “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (7:15) “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (7:19)

Then Paul ends in this great theological question:

 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (7:24)

That is where many people stop reading, concluding that they are prone to sin and are not able to get unstuck. It is as though fear has gripped their hearts and minds and they see no way out of their struggle.

 

And this is where way too many people live; stuck between chapter seven and chapter eight.

But Paul has more to say; in fact, he answers his own question in the very next verse:

“I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25)

But that is only part way where we need to go. Metaphorically, it is like we are “stuck in an elevator between the seventh and eighth floor”.

Chapter eight is filled with great promises of HOPE that our battle with sin isn’t supposed to be fought on our own. WE have a team which is ready and able to help us.

We read in chapter eight that there is no condemnation when we “do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (8:1)

We read that “what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” (8:3)

We read that he has put the Spirit of His Son in us by which we cry out “Daddy!” to Him (8:15)

We read that we don’t do it alone; “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (8:26-27)

We read that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (8:28)

Paul continues:

 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 8:31-35)

Paul goes on to hammer the point home and get us unstuck between chapter seven and eight by writing:

 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (8:37-38)

In fact, you should probably read seven and eight in one sitting; I’ve only hit a few of the verses.

So, the next time you are struggling and make your way to Romans chapter seven, don’t stop and get stuck, keep reading on to chapter eight.

This way you don’t have to try to live life “stuck in an elevator between the seventh and eighth floor”.

All Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.