Do-It-Youself
By Grant Gaines
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas is just around the corner and gifts are wrapped under the tree. Every good little girl and boy is erupting with nervous anticipation as they eagerly await the arrival of Christmas morning so they can see what Santa Clause brought them while they were sleeping.
But not everyone shares the same excitement as these little ones to see what presents they got. As the wrapping paper flies across the room after being ripped from its neatly wrapped box, Dads and Granddads across the country hold their breath to see how many “some assembly required” presents they get the privilege to put together that afternoon. Because as every seasoned Dad or Granddad will tell you, “some assembly required” can be more accurately translated “one to two hours of frustration”.
There’s always a piece missing, a part that doesn’t fit, or a battery that is required—it’s never as easy as it looks. Need a flat tire changed? No problem. Need the running toilet fixed? They can handle that. But give that handyman a tricycle to put together and get ready to watch that Mr. Fix-It wallow in frustration as he stresses and strains to put that bike together.
It would have been easier if the directions were clearer. It would have been easier if the parts fit. And it would have been easier if they had just called the customer service help line from the start. But this is the day and age of the “Do-It-Yourself” mentality. No matter how tough a task or how close the help, today’s culture takes pride in figuring things out on their own. As long as there is even a glimmer of hope that they can piece the puzzle together on their own, you can bet that the phone, the instruction manual, and the helpful opinion will not be used.
I wonder how often we take this approach to our own problems in life. We have a huge, stressful assignment thrust upon us at school, at work, or at home and we try to do it ourselves. We wrestle with our problems until we are finally drained of our own capacity to fight for a solution, so as a last resort we call upon God, our, “…very present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1, ESV).
How strange it is that we ignore His help. How prideful and foolish we are to attempt to carry the heavy burdens of life on our own when every step of the way Jesus is right next to us pleading to bear our burdens for us— “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NLT). And yet, ignoring God’s offer to help is what we seem to do time and time again, just as the Israelites did in the book of Judges.
See if you can find the theme of the following passages. “The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that He sold them into the hands of [their enemies], to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the LORD, He raised up for them a deliverer…” (Judges 3:8-9, NIV). “The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and He gave them a deliverer…” (Judges 3:14-15, NIV). “Because [the king of Canaan] had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help” (Judges 4:3, NIV).
Did you catch the theme in all of these passages? For 8 years, 18 years, and 20 years respectively the Israelites tolerated oppression simply because they tried to do it themselves rather than asking God for the help that He was more than ready to give!
Do you do this? Do you try to solve a problem on your own and view a prayerful call to the Helper as a last resort or as some sort of “Life-Line” from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire only to be used in the toughest of pickles? That’s not how God intended us to live.
Maybe you’re like the Israelites right now any you’re struggling with oppression. But unlike the Israelites you’re not being oppressed by a foreign country but by a sin or by the stress of the season. Well, God has good news for you because in His eyes you’re a sheep. And I don’t know how much you know about these animals, but sheep are not burden bearing animals. Throw a yoke, saddle, or pack on a sheep’s back and down it goes like the temperatures in the winter. A good shepherd knows this and is willing to bear the animal’s burdens.
Our Good Shepherd (John 10:11) knows this, and He is willing to bear our burdens. So if you want this Christmas season to be the “hap-happiest season of all”, “Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, NIV).
“O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”
—What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
