It is finished! My shop building is officially completed! To be truthful, it has been mostly completed for some time now, it just needed rain gutters installed on the front side to be “officially” finished and now that has been done. I’m really glad to get those gutters installed so that I don’t have to stand in the water pouring off the roof as I unlock the door. Man, that was annoying.
So, I picked up two 16 ft long gutters, end caps, elbows and some down-spouting and painted them to match the trim on my shop, and then assembled them out in the lawn on saw horses. When I was ready to hang the gutter, I now had a 32 ft long piece to install.
Now, I’m pretty handy as things go, but there was no way that I could hold up a 32 ft long gutter and screw the brackets into the building by myself. It’s not that the gutter was heavy… it wasn’t heavy at all… but it was long and a bit flimsy. So, I enlisted the help of Lauri and my son to hang that gutter.
I know, this is not a very exciting story… just where am I going with this? Maybe you would like that last 60 seconds of your life back? Here’s the deal… sometimes in life you just need a helping hand. You know, someone to listen to you… someone to be present… someone to be that extra set of hands, or eyes, or ears. Someone to care.
Doing life alone is tough and… well… lonely. I am so grateful that God in his wisdom has designed the Christian faith to be relational, and the church to be a healthy community where no one has to do the Christian Life alone.
You know, I could have figured out how to hang that gutter myself. I am pretty resourceful. I could have used 2×4’s to brace it, straps to hold it in place… ladders to prop it up… but that would have been foolish, it was much simpler to just ask for help. And… I probably would have then had material for another ponderings mis-adventure from Pastor Steve such as a collapsing ladder or a bent up gutter. Sometimes… sometimes… I use the brain God has given me.
Can you do the Christian Life alone… sure… but why would you want to? The Christian faith is designed by God to be relational… church is about relationships. Our relationship with God, our relationships with each other… and even our relationship with those who are still lost.
I love what the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia. “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” Galatians 6:2-3 NLT Wow, Paul isn’t seeking to feed anyones ego here, is he? “You are not that important.” Zing!
The message is clear… everyone in the Body of Christ is expected to care and to help their Christian brothers and sisters. No one gets a pass on this one… no one is too important… no one too exalted. Remember Jesus’ words? “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve…” Listen, Jesus is the Exalted One… yet he was still willing to serve.
So, let’s share each other’s burdens, let’s be quick to lend a helping hand, let’s BE the Church as we do life together!
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