Tools and Their Work

When I am at a work site where I am building a deck, remodeling a basement, or doing some basic home repair I go to my van to get the tools or the equipment I need. I keep my tools and equipment in the shop at my house and load them in the van before I go to the job site. One of the most frustrating and unproductive times occur when I do not have the right tool I need in the van. Sometimes I forget to bring one particular tool. Sometimes I need something I was not planning on using.

When this happens I find myself creatively improvising with some other tool or some other method. This is never as good. Sometimes it creates a bigger problem. Most often I end up doing the work next time or I drive back to the house to get the correct tool.

All the tools are different. Even the best tool is not good enough for every job. Often the smallest tool is used the most often. Sometimes the simplest tool is used in very specific, complex cases. I know I do not want to be in the middle of a job and realize that the tool I need is on the shelf back at my house and not ready to be used in my van.

I appreciate each of my tools. I choose them at the time of their purchase to help me get the jobs done effectively and correctly. I could not do what I do if I only had a hammer and saw.

This is so true of the reality of being a believer and “working for the Lord.” For you to work for the Lord does not mean you need to become something as much as it means discovering who you are. God has made you with the ability and faith to achieve what only you can do. If you continue to try to be something you are not you will in reality become useless. Think of the saw trying to drive nails. After a few attempts the saw would cease to be used. A good tool would become “nothing.”

Paul writes in Galatians 6:3, “if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing he deceives himself.” He then says, “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else.” There is no way you can evaluate your Christian life and productivity by comparing yourself to others.

You are as different from each other as the tools in a tool box. Even the concept of a tool box demands that statement to be true. When you open a tool box you do not want to find it full of thirty or forty 11/16” wrenches. Each of our “ministries” is as unique as the tools.