It’s the little things, right?
I don’t know if you’ve ever been trying to get something done, and there’s a little element within your day that stops you completing the big task. Well, this was the story of my Friday 19th March 2021.
So, I and Rob where eagerly anticipating one of the first school sessions since lockdown 3.0 had begun. We’d planned the session, loaded up the van, picked up all the PPE gear, and sat in the van ready to go. Now the van hadn’t been used in four months, and so like the well-prepared director I am, I turned the engine over to make sure the battery hadn’t gone flat. As the engine roared into life, we were ready for anything. The afternoon, however, was a different story.
This time I turned the engine on, I put the van into reverse gear, took the handbrake off and tried to reverse the van into the middle of the car park at Saint John’s Church, Walcott. The van’s brakes seemed a little sticky, however I thought this might be the case as a little bit of rust is usual on brake discs when a vehicle hasn’t been used for that period of time. As I put the van into first gear and went to drive away, the van had other ideas; and like trying to get a grumpy teenager out of bed on a Saturday morning – the van was going nowhere. She was stuck, and no amount of sweet talking, or promise of a bacon butty was going to move the vehicle. In the end we had to call the school and cancel the session whilst we waited for the breakdown service to arrive – which was 90 minutes later. Our breakdown engineer was extremely well versed and knew exactly what the problem was… “it’s wrecked mate….”
It then took an additional 45 minutes to get the van on the back of the breakdown lorry (I mean have you ever tried to move a vehicle, where its wheels are jammed tight?) and off to the garage for diagnosis.
Well, Tuesday morning rolled around, and I had the most bizarre conversation in youth work history to date as I received the call from the garage. It goes a little something like this:
Garage: Hello, this is the garage, is this Mr. Clarke?
Dave: Yes, speaking. How can I help?
Garage: Do you like scrabble?
Now at this point, I wasn’t sure whether the garage was telling me a joke, or inviting me on a date – so I responded like a good Christian leader and asked a question back…
Dave: The question is do you like Scrabble?
This was turning out to be a little bit of an awkward conversation, however after what seemed like an eternity, he explained the situation….
Garage: The situation is that we believe one of the Scrabble pieces that were in your glove compartment had fallen down the back and into the engine mechanics, lodging itself in between the brake sensor and the cable. This meant that when you took your foot off the brake pedal, the Scrabble piece wedged the brakes on and therefore your vehicle was unable to move. Once we dislodged the offending Scrabble piece, it fixed the problem. I can assure you this is the first time we’ve ever seen this problem; however, I would recommend that in the future you remove all Scrabble pieces from the glove compartment….
I duly finished the conversation feeling a little bit of a plonker, and yet knowing that the offending item was a tool used in helping young people work out some of their mental health issues.
The thing about the 1cm squared plastic Scrabble piece is this, it is great in the right context, but in the case of van engines, it can bring a 1 tonne vehicle to a standstill when it’s in the wrong place – and it can often be the same with our faith can’t it? A little thing, something ill-timed can seem to throw us off.
The disciples in the Bible would often get the wrong end of the stick and jump into a situation that wasn’t right:
- When Peter grabbed the centurion’s sword to defend Jesus, his passion for this saviour was on point, but unquestionably ill placed.
- When Thomas declares “let’s go and die with Jesus!” Within the context of Lazarus’ death.
- When Peter is reprimanded by Jesus for answering the question too quickly “Peter do you love me?”
I wonder what would happen if we took a little longer to think and respond as Jesus would. Would we still act the same way? Judge things more appropriately? And reflect on the events previously happened. As we look to prayer this coming week, let’s take a moment to think and to respond as Jesus would.
We prayer for:
- Grace, for when we have acted out of turn, or inappropriately in the context.
- Thanks, for when God has guided us, giving us opportunities, and showed us what is right in the moment.
- Young People, as they continue to do schooling and discover their faith in light of the current pandemic.
- Understanding, when the hurts of the past year require us to simply sit, listen, and weep with those who are weeping.
- Swindon Youth for Christ, as we embark on structural change and launch our new strategy for how we are going to work for the coming three years.
Written by Dave Clarke – Director of Swindon Youth for Christ.