useful uselessness...

I work on cars.  

I always have. It's something I picked up watching my dad.

Sometimes I just don't have the right tool.  

Looking under the hood, I see something that can only be fixed if I relentlessly bang on it.  

With an "ah hah" moment, I go to the toolbox knowing I have just the tool for that job.  And yes, I reach right past the......hammer, to my wrench.  

Can you imagine what my hammer is thinking??  

Rejected?  

Inferior?  

Useless?  

And oh! My poor wrench.  If it had any idea that I was going to literally beat it within an inch of its life, it would have crawled into another drawer. 

But!!  Oh I love this part!  But in full surrender, full submission, my wrench gives itself up to be useful.  

Bang! 

Bam!  

Crash!  

goes the sounds from under the car hood.  

The hammer sits and smirks as it knows better, and the wrench is just slapped silly.  

And then it happens.  

What was broken is now repaired.  What was once a lost cause, now has renewal of life.  And my car engine starts.

As I return my wrench to the drawer, covered in engine oil, now bearing scars forever visible, even a bit disfigured, my hammer looks over and scoffs.  

I know this is what they are thinking!! ;)

But what my tools didn't know is that while I have a hammer to bang on stuff, this particular situation required getting around the alternator, which the hammer could never do.  It simply wasn't built for that kind of application. 

But my wrench, oh that ever available wrench, it fit perfectly behind the alternator and just like that, became the right tool for the job. 

The hammer will never know this truth.  

The wrench only knows by experience.  

I don't consult with my tools either.  

I love my tools.  But i wield them at will...even against their supposed purpose...to make much of my will. 

And so it is with our Father.

“I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize that He is able to carry out His will for me. It does not matter where He places me, or how. That is for Him to consider, not me, for in the easiest positions He will give me grace, and in the most difficult ones His grace is sufficient.”

J. Hudson Taylor - missionary to China