Encouragement

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Have Skills - Will Travel
by Glenn A. Hascall


The local newspaper displayed my name and phone number for all to see. While some might have thought it was an invasion of privacy, I welcomed the small square. I had paid good money to have my name and phone number placed in that paper.

This was the summer of my seventeenth year of life and I welcomed the challenge of work. The only problem was - in order to be challenged, I NEEDED WORK. So, I placed an ad letting my hometown know that I was available to do almost any odd job available. Later that day the phone rang and I answered it.

"Hello," I said with youthful enthusiasm.

"Are you the fella that is willing to do odd jobs?" a gruff voice inquired.

"Yes, sir," I replied with my best manners.

"You sound kind'a young," he replied.

"I'm almost seventeen," I said in a voice I'm sure cracked.

"Well, I'm putting in a sprinkler system on Monday and I think I might need some help," the man said after a slight hesitation.

"If you'll tell me where and when to be there, you can be sure that I will be there," I replied.

He gave me an address and an 8 AM start time.

On that Monday morning I tossed a shovel and some gloves in the back of my 1963 Chevy and away I went, arriving a few minutes before eight.

Sure enough, a man was digging in a yard and another man was helping him. I got out of my car and opened the trunk, put my gloves on and went over and introduced myself.

The man pulled off his glove and tentatively shook my hand. He looked back at the other man and seemed about to say something. He hesitated and then gave some instructions and I set to work.

A couple of days later the project was finished and, with payment in hand, I was off to a farm east of town where I drove a farm truck through pastures and fields picking up debris and stacking all the dead wood into burn piles. More calls came in and I was busy all summer long. Then again my dad had often told me, "If you make yourself available and are willing to work, you will more than likely find that you'll have plenty to do." I was available, I was willing and I had plenty to do. There were occasions when I had as many as six different part time jobs with a schedule that told me where to go - and when.

Later that year, my sister Gayle and I talked about that jack-of-all-trades summer and I mentioned the first call I had received - the one from the man needing help putting in a sprinkler system. She smiled sheepishly and then told me that the man had actually called back when I was out and had left a message that he had a friend that would be helping him and that I didn't need to come. SHE HAD FORGOTTEN TO TELL ME THIS, so while I should have felt foolish showing up unneeded, I actually remained blissfully ignorant.

It seems somewhat funny all these years later, but I can imagine the man wondering why I would show up when he had left the message that I was not needed. That bit of information somehow failed to reach me and I could only respond to what I knew. It was pure kindness that allowed him to put me to work and pay me anyway.

God's Word is filled with directions for our life. Sometimes we do things we think are right, only to find out later that we had somehow missed the directions that would have told us we really should be doing something different. We often fail to 'pick up our messages' from Scripture and blunder through times of embarrassment and frustration. Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

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