Once in youth ministry our group planned a fall outreach event for students to invite their friends to hear about how Jesus could make a difference in their lives. One of the activities we planned for the event was for students to launch pumpkins from a large trebuchet. Actually, it was Pastor Austin’s father, Jerry, who designed the impressive centripetal force thrower. This trebuchet was massive! It had over a 20 foot throwing arm and could hold well over 1000 pounds in its counterweight. When perched just off the road on our church property, it could throw a basketball sized pumpkin several hundred feet over the parking lot and into a wooded area behind our church property. It was a big hit for that outreach, for sure.
Once the machine was loaded and the counter weight cranked up in the air the launcher was ready to be fired, and when the weight was released the trebuchet would roar as it whipped the pumpkin through the base and into the air. It was quite an impressive piece of engineering to say the least.
So, we set up the trebuchet the morning of the event to fine tune it to launch pumpkins properly. You see, the angle of the release mechanism for when the launcher would release the pumpkin is EVERYTHING — and it took just a bit of trial and error to set it right.
I had several friends on the Middleburg Heights Police Department and we had made the city aware of our plans… several officers that were on duty stopped by the church because they wanted to see this massive trebuchet in action… but it would be safe to say that our first attempt to launch a pumpkin did not quite go as planned. Did I mention the importance of the launch angle mechanism? Well… ours was jussssttt a bit off that first time. And instead of throwing the pumpkin out and forward… it threw it straight up in the air!
Way, way, way… up in the air. For just a second, Jerry, me and those cops stared in awe as that pumpkin went straight up… and then somebody… I don’t remember who… yelled, “RUN!” We scattered like roaches when the lights come on!
Well, gravity demands that what goes up — must come down — and boy, did that pumpkin come down. It imploded on the street with a sound like a cannon shot… and missed a Middleburg Heights patrol car by about 5 feet! If that pumpkin had hit that car it wouldn’t have stopped until it hit the floor! Phew… Thank you Lord for your mercy! I can just picture Jesus up there in Heaven saying, “Gabe… Steve is at it again. Better get down there and give that pumpkin a nudge or Grace Church is going to have to buy a patrol car, and I have way better uses for that church money!”
I am so grateful that when things don’t seem to go right in our life that we have a God who never panics and always desires to work for good in our lives. Hey, I’m not talking about pumpkins anymore. In Jesus, Christians can find purpose in difficult circumstances, because He always desires to use challenge to grow our faith and accomplish His purpose for our lives. I know, sometimes it is uncomfortable and messy… you should have seen that pumpkin… but God is the master at making beauty from ashes.
Our faith in Christ is a work in progress. Certainly faith is required to experience new birth in Christ, but the process of knowing Jesus and growing to be like him is a life-long pursuit. We can rest assured that in the hands of God the process is going to be for our good… if we just have faith in Him.
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