A Helper

Growing up I learned to help daddy. Being poor we did our own work because we could not afford to hire someone. Dad would teach me about tools and repairing broken equipment. He expected me to identify a tool or part when he asked for it.

One night stands out. Dad was working our 1958 Chevy and told me to get a part from the cabinet on our back porch. I was clueless so I asked momma to help me. She was clueless as well. The best I could remember I think it was a part for the distributor. I searched the cabinet and retrieved a part. When I gave it to dad, he was not happy.

He wanted to know what they were teaching me at school. I told him, “Not mechanicing (a Chilton County Alabama term).” School had changed since his time in school. He would not believe the things schools teach today. Granted there are trade schools that teach mechanics.

Through the years I learned from dad and could hand him the proper part or tool before he asked for it. It was fun watching dad react when I would hand the correct tool when he had asked in error. I thank God that dad taught me many things that I never had to hire someone to perform.

When I was twelve, Bill Langston, a carpenter, asked me to help him building houses. I helped him for years as he taught me the principles of construction. It was a wonderful job to watch a house being built from the ground to completion. I still love the smell of cut lumber.

I have spent most of my adulthood being a helper. My first job after graduation was making boxes for Keystone Metal Molding. It was humiliating for an honor student and Beta Club president to be a helper to someone that never graduated but that is life when you start working.

I bid on a die setter position and became another helper. I can honestly say that die setting in giant 150-to-200-ton presses was one of the best jobs I ever had. The transformation of rolled aluminum becoming a shiny chrome part for automobiles was fascinating.

I became a machinist helper and Robert Smitherman taught me operate laths, sharpening drill bits, and how to work using all those algebraic equations that I told Miss Harvey, my algebra teacher, that I would never use. It was amazing to watch metal turning in a lath become a vital piece in machinery.

Working in the cement industry I was a kiln burner helper for A D Gore. A D taught me how to operate, or burn, the cement kilns. A D was the best burner at the plant and was a very good teacher. He became a supervisor and I eventually became a kiln operator.

One of the things that I have done as a helper was to pull pranks on those I helped. When working in the carpenter shop attending school at the University of Montevallo, I helped Bailey Santa Cruz. We became great friends and I would pull tricks like giving him the wrong tool for a certain job. He would give me a sour look and shake his head. He would say. “That’s the wrong tool.” I would have this big grin as I pulled the correct tool from my back pocket and handed it to him.

When I worked in maintenance at the cement plant, I was a helper to “Cotton.” My foreman placed me with Cotton because no one could work with him. I asked, “Why me.” My foreman said, “Because you’re a preacher.”

I found Cotton to be bitter about life. I took time to listen and help him with more than maintenance. It was difficult to help him because he knew more than me. I learned to allow him to make mistakes and become frustrated then I would offer my aid. Most of the time I diagnosed his failure by watching him and figured how to solve his dilemma.

Cotton was a good teacher and after I gained his favor, I was able to help him. Our co-workers could not believe the change in him.

I have learned that is how the Comforter, helper, works in the life of a believer. I have a big grin when I think the Comforter has a sense of humor.

 

“Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul.” – Psalm 54:4 KJV

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” – Psalm 121:1-2 KJV

“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” – Hebrews 13:6 KJV

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” John 14:16 KJV

Character Centered/Achievement Centered

 

Dr. Charles Colson writes in one of his books, The Body of Christ, that the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 is an individual commission.  He goes on to write that the church needs to be more character centered than achievement centered.  To understand more about the Church, the body of Christ, the book is a good read and Colson is very prophetic in his wisdom concerning the church and secular influences on the church.

Colson as you may recall was the hatchet man for President Nixon and as result of the Watergate scandal was sentenced to prison.  In prison, he received Christ as his Savior.  Since his conversion and release, Colson has been a very prominent Southern Baptist leader for Christ as speaker and author.

The morning I read his comment or character verses achievement, I thought of a conversation I had with a pastor friend.  He and I would attend Southern Baptist rallies, national and state, and instead of being energized, he would get discouraged.  In his passion for evangelism, he became depressed because his church was not growing numerically.  That is achievement oriented.  This is how most Baptists, national, state, and local, judge success in our Convention, our states, and associations.

Keynote speakers at conventions are typically pastors who started with a few members and grew large churches.  The typical storyline was, “we started with 50 or less members in an open area and now we are running 500, 1000, or more.”

I would quiz my friend about these claims.  I asked, “Did you know that that church did start in a cotton field, but now there are subdivisions due to white flight and urban expansion?”  I would ask him how many people moved into his community within the last year.  He would reply that people had moved out.  I asked how expected his church to enlarge if the community was shrinking.

Another depressing concern for my friend was the inconsistence of his Sunday morning Sunday School and worship attendance.  Again, this was achievement oriented.  He continually complained that he would have a consistent attendance if he did not have so many members that worked on Sunday.  He told me on several occasions that they needed to quit their jobs if they had to work Sunday.

I would quiz him again.  I say quiz but it might have been me playing the devil's advocate.  I would ask him did he turn on the lights on Sundays.  He said yes and I said someone was working at the electric plant for him to have lights.

I asked if he drove a car to his church on Sunday.  He said yes and I said that many of the parts of that car were manufactured on Sunday and that the car may have been assembled on Sunday.

I knew he liked to eat out on Sundays, and I reminded him that those people were working Sunday.  I reminded him that I worked shift work for many years, which many of his members have, and had only one Sunday a month as an off day.  I worked shift work as a bi-vocational pastor.  I missed one Sunday morning, one Sunday night, and one Wednesday night every month.

My pastor friend preached for me when I missed these services.  I reminded him that most of the conveniences, luxuries, and necessities are produced on Sundays.  I told them that it was very costly and inefficient to start and stop a cement kiln so the operators could be off on Sundays.  It took several hours to shut down a kiln and several hours to restart.  That would make cement unaffordable.  That is true for most manufacturing.

When we focus on the achievement, we forget character.  The Great Commission challenges us to make disciples.  I asked my friend if his members that worked shift attended, taught, and tithed when they were at church.  His response was they do and even send their tithes and have a substitute teacher when they have to work on Sundays.  I asked him, “Well, what’s your problem?”  In reality, the members who were faithful in these areas were disciples by the character of their actions.  Besides this, they were witnesses where they were employed.  They were following the commission of Acts 1:8. They were witnesses at work.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8 KJV).

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen Matthew 28:19-20 KJV).

Colson says, “The first priority of those communities (Churches) is to disciple men and women to maturity in Christ and then equip them to live their faith in every aspect of life and in every part of the world.”