The Sander

The main man, the speaker of the ecclesiastical morning is eating breakfast, ninety minutes away from standing behind the pulpit. He takes a bite and chips a tooth. His dental life was happening while he was making other plans.

On the way out of town to a pastors' conference in the dead of night, a tire blows up (most tires blow out, this one blew up) twenty miles from Nowhere, USA. The pastor jacks up the car, changes the tire, and lowers the jack to its base only to find the spare is flat. His life was happening in stygian darkness while he was making other plans.

Does the world ever cooperate? Does the world ever "work?" The old saying, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." It seems not "often," but "always."

Cape Canaveral becomes Cape Carnival when the first U. S. satellite-bearing missile blows up in front of the world and all the angels after a dramatic countdown. Life happened while the smartest engineers made other plans.

The answer is No. No, the world doesn't work. It hasn't since God rigged it not to work in Genesis 3:17-18. It's not only the machinations of teeth cracking and tires blowing up, it's also people. Other people can "happen" while you're making other plans. They can disturb, upset, ruffle, and sometimes destroy your carefully crafted apple carts.

Mark runs off, deserting Paul and Barnabas on their maiden missionary voyage. Hardly contributing to Paul's bon voyage plans. Ananias and Sapphira disrupt a great church service in Acts 5. Christian widows find themselves as the odd women out, and start to grouse it up.

God rigged the world so that it won't work right and we've even given a scientific name for it - the second law of thermodynamics which says everything is running down and tending toward disorder.

God rigged the world to bring us to Himself. Nothing works right, nothing quite satisfies as we think it should and everywhere we turn, our carefully constructed wells are running dry or are already dry. Jeremiah called them our "broken cisterns, cisterns that hold no water." These drive us to him.

Consider other people's foibles, failures, inconsistencies and downright sins that all conspire to wreak unholy havoc with our plans. They, like the world's "accidents" of life, are the sandpaper God uses to generate the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God produces the mature believer and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) by the use of just such sandpaper.

It's no big deal to show grace to the graceful, to exhibit love to the lovely. We have no trouble being gentle with the gentleman. It's not a big deal to have joy when we're in the catbird seat. There's no patience when I'm not right smack dab in the middle of a rigged world conspiring against me and events and people are running as smoothly and as on time as Mussolini's trains. No big deal to be kind when our feathers remain as groomed and unruffled as the fellow on "GQ." (In I Peter 4:12-14 and Matt. 5:46-47, Jesus and Peter point this out to their listeners.)

The crux of the matter is this: God generates the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22-23 in us when other people's failures, flat spare tires, inconveniences and chipped teeth unite in their ungodly conspiracies. They become God's sandpaper to smooth out our naturally rough spots to produce the supernatural life of Galatians 5. The natural reaction to the divine sandpaper is to erupt in anger, impatience, and malice. It's supernatural to erupt in love, joy, peace, gentleness, and patience when the sandpaper of life hits our carefully constructed world. When it happens, it's the Divine Sander rubbing us the right way.

We live in a rigged world of teeth that crack and people with feet of clay that get stuck in our path. They conspire against us, and yet the Divine Sander uses them to craft a supernatural life erupting in love, joy, peace, gentleness, patience.

Dr. Mike Halsey

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