Component Failure. What do I do?

Last week, I experienced something that most of us drivers never want to go through.  I was in a rural part of Alberta delivering products to our customers when my power jack decided to fail.  Why this is a big deal?  Some of our trucks carry over 40 000lbs of product and the power jack is essential to unloading pallets to the lift gate and then sometimes we drive them right to the door of the customer, saving huge amounts of time and back power.  I was just over half-way done when the power jack decided it had had enough and was bailing on me.  I called the shop, back in Edmonton, and received the usual chuckle with a diagnostic opinion of “you’re on your own now.”  Well, thank goodness for professionals.

The problem is I was almost 3 hours from a shop that could help and had 6 or 7 pallets left to unload.  Now, of course, I would have to do everything twice.  I would have to climb over pallets and move all the products to the gate.  Then descend to the ground.  Then load them all up again and wheel them into the customer.  Effectively, doubling the time to service the customers.  However, my job is to make deliveries.

What did I learn from all this?  Sometimes we are rolling along in life with everything going great.  We are working hard and making progress, and then a key component (or person)  decides to call it a day.  Now what do you do?  You decide to dial the boss.  No answer.  Does this mean that God doesn’t care?  How could he let this happen to me while I am trying to do good.  The Bible says that, “all things work together for the good”  NOT  work good.  There’s a difference there.  You could turn around and go back, but you have come too far to turn back now.  People are depending on you.  Maybe the next person you meet will be at their wits end and ready to give up; but you pushed through to deliver them the help and encouragement that they desperately needed.

Friend, somebody is counting on you.  They may not even know it yet, but they are.  Please don’t let a component failure hinder your mission.  When you received the Holy Ghost, God loaded you up to make deliveries of love, joy, peace, etc.  I want to encourage you today to make those deliveries, whatever it takes.  Don’t waiver!  Don’t worry!  Don’t whine!  And most of all, don’t quit!  Jesus didn’t, so why should we?