Problems are for Solving

Another from the archives, 6/25/05.

Yesterday we put a new front door on our house. By “we� I mean that a good friend and his two teenage sons put a new front door on my house and I tried not to get in their way while still trying to feel like I was being helpful.

Our front door was falling off its hinges and was old and scratched up and we decided to replace it. Now some household jobs I’ll try myself but I faced the front door with a quite a bit of trepidation. If you don’t fix the dryer in one try, you need to go to the Laundromat. Mess up the front door—well you can’t leave any more and that A/C starts sucking out the door like a vacuum and you die of heat exhaustion.

So needless to say we didn’t try to tackle this one on our own.

My friend worked in construction for a number of years and has experience and tools that I will only dream of. His boys already are handier than I may one day be (I hope to send Samuel out with them when they start doing jobs on their own as an apprentice/gopher). I asked him how long it would take to hang a door and he started out by telling me what could go wrong—and then said about four hours if none of that happened.

My eyes glazed over as he told me the things that could go wrong. It was like listening to a computer programmer talk about the intricacies of a SQL database—I just don’t get the terms. I try to learn a bit as I go—but my friend has forgotten more about construction than I’ll ever learn.

In amongst all of this (and this is the point of the blog) I asked what I could do to serve his family in way of repayment. He said he couldn’t think of anything—and that it was his pleasure to serve us this way.

It made me feel bad that he didn’t need anything from me—thought I’m pretty sure it was mostly pride. A bit later in the conversation we talked about timing and the weekend of July 4^th wouldn’t work because I’m donating some consulting to a ministry near Cincinnati and won’t be here.

My friend reminded me that this is how the church is supposed to work. He can hang a door—and loves to help other people that way. He can’t go help a ministry through a transition stage when they can’t afford to hire a consultant. And there are things that ministry is doing that neither of us can. We do what we can do—and we help others with those things—and then we accept the help of others in what we cannot do.

That’s part of the essence of community—serving one another faithfully and laying down our pride and allowing ourselves to be served. This same friend helped me install a dishwasher a while back so I could use the cash I saved not paying an installer to give to a friend who had a big need in his family. A circle of service that honors God rather than us. And when we see our need, we allow others to serve us as Jesus did.

The Beatles wrote a song a while back:

Help, I need somebody,

Help, not just anybody,

Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,

I never needed anybody’s help in any way.

But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,

Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down

And I do appreciate you being round.

Help me, get my feet back on the ground,

Won’t you please, please help me.

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,

My independence seems to vanish in the haze.

But every now and then I feel so insecure,

I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down

And I do appreciate you being round.

Help me, get my feet back on the ground,

Won’t you please, please help me.

What they called help and what we might call help are not the same thing. But one thing where the song hits me is this: our pride (sinful pride) makes us feel self-assured, when God has given us needs that He has put other people around us to meet. And likewise, He has put us around others who need us as well—those particular gifts that He gives.

Community requires that we give to and take from one another. Not in a socialistic way—but in a way that we give in order to honor Jesus and we receive help because we recognize our weakness and need of it—just as we came to Jesus recognizing that we need Him.

I am sure that I will be writing more about this as time goes on, but I am very thankful today for the door on my home. I am thankful because of the love my friend has for me in serving my family in this way, and I am thankful that God has taught me to lay down my pride enough to receive the service my friend has offered me.

May we lay down our pride and serve one another and be served—all to the glory of the Humble Servant who has saved us from that pride.

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