Today an interesting thing happened. I have a van that was graciously given to me that has a big lift that comes right out the side door. It is quite an amazing piece of mechanics. I can put a key in by the back tail light and operate that lift with toggle switches. When I get on the lift, it puts me right up in that big van and I never have to lift myself! It is a big, tall Chevy conversion van so I could never lift myself in anyway! It has over 300,000 miles on it so I just use it local.
Once I get in the van, I have controls inside the van to close up the ramp and doors. I then transfer into the driver’s seat and off I go. When I get to where I am going, I just do the opposite – open the doors, get lifted down to the ground, roll out, go to the back of the van and use the controls to shut it all back up.
Not today.
I work at the kid’s school today so I left on break to take my sister to her job. When I got back, the playground was empty. All of the children had gone back into school. I began to take myself out of my van and it would not go down all the way to the ground. What?!! I was so close I wanted to just hop off of it. But, the there is a lip all the way around and so I couldn’t. I could go back up and into the van but what good would I do just sitting in there.
I looked around to figure out what the problem was. A little bolt had fallen out and the leg that is supposed to fold down when lowered was sticking straight out and would not allow the lift to touch the ground. What in the world was I supposed to do!? All my kids were inside. The teachers were inside. I could call them for help…and would have. But, I wanted to get out of this jam by myself!
After about 10 minutes of lowering and raising it and hoping that it would trigger and go down, I was continually met with failure…and was still stuck.
Stay with my story…I am going somewhere I promise! 🙂
I decided to get my long wallet out of my backpack. I leaned all the way over, hanging on with my left hand and started banging on that leg with my wallet to get it to release as we came down. After multiple tries, it worked!!!
I was stuck…..3 inches above ground…unable to get off or go anywhere….because of one tiny missing bolt.
The moral of this story? As I was sitting at the back of my van, finally free from my dilemma, putting my lift back up in my van, it hit me.
How many times do we let one little tiny detail just totally get us stuck? Maybe it is a friend that doesn’t make a decision we like. Maybe it is a preference that we have that someone else does not. Maybe it is a spouse that makes a mistake. Maybe it is family that gets offended. Whatever it is, in the course of life and eternity, how big is it really?
How many times do we sit there on the lift of our life with our arms crossed, denying that we need any help, and not even trying to get out of this situation. Friends will make decisions that disappoint us. Family will hurt our feelings. Spouses will sometimes act like the sinful humans they are! We all get stuck. But, for how long? Over something so little?
We must work to get over these things. We must work to fix what we can. We must work to get out of that situation. We can crawl back into our little holes (my van) and I won’t be on the lift anymore. Instead I will be all alone in a van going nowhere. Or, we can sit on the lift with our arms crossed doing nothing. Still not going anywhere.
Or, we can figure it out and get over it. Now we are going somewhere.
By the way, it is pouring outside now. I am so glad I am in the warmth and comfort of the school surrounded by people I love.
Don’t let Satan get you stuck over the “little’s” It truly is the little foxes that spoil the vines. We cannot control others, but we can make sure that we do all that we can to not get stuck over the little things.
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