Tools Of The Trade

Author Anne Lamott, in her book Traveling Mercies, writes “It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of bright, shiny tools. In my mind’s eye, I could see all those tools. I eyed the saw of discernment. I saw the hammer of wisdom. I picked up the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up, I found that life handed you these rusty, bent, old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds, they're enough.”

Tools, I have my share. There are others, perhaps some of you, have more, some have less. I am not a mechanic. That would mean my tools like wrenches and sockets, particularly sockets and some other tools, are few and far between in my garage.

Woodworking tools are a different story. Because of some inner-ear problems I don’t do as much woodwork as I used to do. In fact, I sold many of my tools but when my father passed away I inherited all his tools.

If you came into my garage you would find a table saw, a compressor, brad nail gun, air stapler, miter saw, plunge router, belt sander, another belt sander, mouse sander, a bigger mouse sander, an orbital sander, a reciprocating sander, drill press, circular saw, 3 cordless drills, 2 corded drills, and on and on and that is just the power tools. And, really, I don’t have that many. Oh, and, and thanks to what my Dad left me, I have even more than that.

Do I really need all that? Well, obviously I don’t need five drills or four sanders. But, my newest tool is the band saw. There are things I can do with it I can’t do on my table saw.

I was in a colleague’s office one day. He too is a woodworker. He had a wooden train he had made. He used all hand tools. Had I made it, I would have used power tools. The result would have been the same. I likely would have finished first, but I am not sure which would look better.

Not every person, and definitely not every Christian enjoys doing woodwork no matter how cool the tools are and it doesn’t even matter that one of the heroes of the Bible, Joseph, was a carpenter. That is OK. If we were all carpenters, who would fix my car? If all of us were preachers who would listen to our sermons?

Something that is different, or at least it should be different is, prayer. All of us are called to be people of prayer. Matthew writes, “AND WHEN YOU PRAY…” When Scripture says, something like, “And when you pray…” to me says we are supposed to pray. It isn’t like saying, “If you pray.” That would make things different. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)

We are supposed to pray. We are not only supposed to pray, this verse makes it pretty clear that we need to remain focused as people of prayer. When you pray don’t go babbling. That says that we need to be people who pray and are careful to be focused on what we are praying.

I think I have told you, I am not a morning guy. I can get up early if I have to, but that doesn’t mean I necessarily have to like it. As a result, all too often, I fall asleep when I am in my morning prayer time (or a lot of other things for that matter), when I am falling asleep, I am, at best babbling. I need something that will keep me focused. During my time in ministry I have found I do a lot better by praying at night and, I also do a lot better when there is something to focus with. I am far more likely to stay awake. I am also more likely to not babble.

I also have come to know, that, while I may even stay awake, I may not even babble, but my mind does wander. It wanders very easily. Many times I don’t have any idea how long my mind wanders before I snap back. I also know that often, when my mind goes out on a journey without my body, when I snap back to my right thinking, all too often, I get up and go on about my day without completing my actual prayer time.

I also have another problem. I have people come up to me and say, “Pastor, would you remember me in prayer?” Or, “Can you remember my daughter…” or “…son…” or “…mom…” or “…father…” or “…friend…” etc.