What Is Your Jack Story?

What Is Your Jack Story?

Scripture: Numbers 13:25-33; Proverbs 18:21; Hebrews 11:1

The title of my message this morning is “What Is Your Jack Story?”

Let me start by telling you a jack story. “There was a traveling salesman who got stuck one night on a lonely country road with a flat tire and no jack. So he starts walking towards a service station about a mile away, and as he walks, he begins talking to himself. ‘How much can he charge me for renting a jack?’ he thinks. ‘One dollar, maybe two. But it’s the middle of the night, so maybe there’s an after-hours fee. Probably another five dollars. If he’s anything like my brother-in-law, he’ll figure I got no place else to go for the jack, so he’s cornered the market and has me at his mercy so he’ll probably charge me ten dollars more.’ He goes on walking and thinking, and the price and his anger keep rising. Finally, he gets to the service station where he is greeted cheerfully by the owner. ‘What can I do for you, sir?’ But the salesman will have none of it. He responded, ‘You got some nerve to talk to me, you robber! You thought I was stupid enough to let you take advantage of my unfortunate situation and pay that amount to rent your jack? You can keep it!!!’ After making the statement he stormed off back down the road from whence he came.”

As you listened to that story, could you relate to the salesman? The salesman had a flat tire and he did not have a jack available to change it. At this point, he could wait by his car and hope that another car comes by with a jack or he could walk to the nearest service station to rent one. He chose to walk to the nearest service station. As he set out towards the service station to rent the jack, something happened. He began to create a story in his mind about what would happen when he reached the service station. Notice I said he created a story about what “would” happen versus what “could” happen. The story he created was so real to him that by the time he actually got to the service station he was so furious with the owner and accused him of trying to rob him and refused any sort of help the owner could give him. Can you imagine the bewilderment on the face of the station owner after the salesman marched back down the road cursing at him for trying to rob him?

I share this story with you because some of us might be dealing with our own “jack” story this morning. I don’t know about you, but I have had times when the story I created in my head was more powerful and convincing than the reality that I was facing. But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is when we share our created story with others and it becomes their story too. Do you remember the story of the twelve spies? This is a very familiar story but I think it illustrates how a “jack story” can have dangerous consequences. Turn to Numbers 13:25-33. To set the stage, Moses had sent out twelve spies to look over the Promised Land so that they could see that it was everything that God had said it would be. He did this as a means to “fire up” the people so that they would be ready to go in and possess the land. But what he had hoped would happen didn’t happen because ten of the spies, between seeing the land and returning to Moses with their report, had created “jack stories” that scared the people. Let’s begin reading at verse twenty-five.

“(25) And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. (26) And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. (27) And they told him, and said, ‘We came unto the land where you sent us, and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. (28) Nevertheless the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. (29) The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.’ (30) And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.’ (31) But the men that went up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.’ (32) And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. (33) And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’” (Numbers 13:25-33)