Question, what’s brown and sounds like a bell? Answer later.
The first time I saw Durango, Colorado, I made the comment that if I had to
shovel horse turds to live there, I would do it. Apparently someone heard my
prayer, as I ended up working at a gas station, Trailways depot, and petroleum
jobber for $2.25/hour. We sold diesel, Stoddard solvent, propane, and kerosene
by the gallon or pound, baking in the summer heat at 6500’ altitude, and
freezing at below zero in the winter months. How many trips were made for two
bucks of gas, we were a full service station, or walking to the back lot to fill
a propane tank, when the contents were as cold as the outside air. Little old
ladies coming in with their Mason jars for 30 cents of coal oil, aka kerosene,
to light their fires at home. All done without gloves, as the small lock and
key were unusable with bulky gloves. Changing tires and fixing flats, scraping
snow from windshields while the owner sat inside with the heater on full. Some
nights so cold and clear we once spilled some diesel #2 on the ground and
watched it gel immediately. Kicking it around until it burst all over our
shoes. How many diesel owners from Texas had to have their fuel lines with our
steam cleaner to free them up, afterwards washing our hands in cold water, as
the owner shut off the hot, too many transients used the bath room for cleaning
up. A tough job but like I said, I said what I said......and I haven’t even
gotten to the bad part yet!
We were a Trailways bus depot, we would fill the buses, and dump the
crappers. A wonderful job in the summer when the opened valve just let it
explode everywhere, and then spraying the dump area and your shoes off with the
hose. But in winter, the warm turds hit the ground and froze, and you had to
hit them with the water from the hose until they would soften up enough to go
down the drain, or until your hands turned blue. All because in my prayers, I
made it clear to God what I would do to get my desires, to get my way. A long
way from “thy will be done...” and I still can smell the toxic odor of the one
shot blue disinfectant every once in a while, if only in my
dreams/nightmares....
Two things influenced me with that job, one I never wanted to do it again,
and I learned a great respect for those who do the thankless jobs for low pay
that no one else wants to do. I actually feel compassion when we go past the
fields in the Central Valley, watching the migrant field workers toiling away.
I’ve been there. When a new kid at the counter knows nothing and he waits on
me, I try to be kind, I was once a trainee too. Even the kids who cannot speak
English at the fast food places, hopefully it is not their last job, and at
least they are working. Sometimes we don’t realize how good we have it until we
don’t, or look back in humor at what we once did. The job stunk literally, but
we had many funny times, met a lot of people, I learned about serving, and also
not to tell God how to or what I must have. A great lesson in asking him for
his will to be done...
While the Pharisees were running around telling everyone how holy they
were, and condemning those who weren’t for even breaking the smallest of laws
or tradition, Jesus chose compassion. In his travels he saw the multitude and
how harassed and helpless they were, and showed compassion to them. To one
woman with multiple husbands, drawing water from a distant well as she was not
permitted to use the local one, he talked with her, another Pharisee sin, and
offered her living water, so she would never thirst again. Spiritual water, for
in finding Jesus she would never thirst again spiritually, but still have to go
to a well for water. Her new well would spring up from within her as she had
the holy spirit dwelling in her, and a new freedom not found in the legalism of
the day, or even in many religions today. Do what we say, how we say, when we
say as the pastor hides behind the pulpit. Failing to see that more laws mean
more laws to break and more sin, and lacking the compassion Jesus had on the
crowd and on us individually. How nice to hear “your sins are forgiven, go and
sin no more.”
So to those trained or raised in a setting where “Jesus is coming and boy
is he mad,” or those living in a false fear of retribution from God, remember
Jesus came to forgive, not to condemn. Our sins condemn us, he saves us. How
often do we just need a hug rather than an hour sermon on his love, leaving
worse off than when we arrived. But one thing happens when we are treated
harshly, we return it to others harshly, but when we are shown compassion, we
can reward others with it also. Our choice, no matter how we are treated, no
matter, Jesus showed compassion to all. If only we can remember God owns the
field, sends the workers, and then rewards them, with all glory going to him,
how our attitude of compassion might change. And our prayer life...
I find it amusing today how far the church has gotten away from the
gospel. Programs, processes, and procedures dominate, but remember when Jesus
asked his disciples what they wanted, they responded “teach us to pray,” and
gave them the Lord’s prayer. With the answer in two verses, “thy will be done,”
the toughest four words you’ll ever pray, and “on earth, as it is in heaven,”
for wherever you are, so is the spirit within you. On earth or in heaven after
death, Jesus is with you always. So even in tough times, in wrong prayer
followed by wrong actions, he never leaves us, but wants to show us compassion
and redeem us. There is nothing he cannot fix if we let him. For we cannot do
anything apart from him....and I’ve tried.
Cold hands and a cold heart are no way to go through life. I dreaded
dumping crappers but it was the job that I had signed up for, and do it or find
another job. But you get used to regular meals, and even at $2.25/hour an
occasional Big Mac could be celebrated. But it is in the toughest of times that
Jesus shines the brightest, and there is always the chance that this is what God
wanted, and what I needed. So I leave it up to Jesus, he knows best, for
without struggles we never get to see him at his finest hour, forgiving, giving,
showing compassion, and building us up in him. So in all things give him the
glory, and leave it up to him. In praying like in life, it helps to know which
end of the shovel is preferable. And how rewarding in door plumbing really
is......seems there is a bit of Cousin Eddie in all of us after all.
So what is brown and sounds like a bell.....DUNG!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.xom