Defrost

My wife says we need new appliances. I told her, “We just got new appliances.”

She replied, “The refrigerator is 17 years old.”

“See what I mean?” I said. “Do you remember how you felt at seventeen, so young and vibrant? It is so much different than being 40. Keep in mind…you still look seventeen.  In fact, you look 13…no wait…is that too young?  You don’t look a day over…whatever age you want to be considered to be.”

“Have you looked at the ‘young and vibrant’ refrigerator?” she asked. “The freezer looks like the desolate tundra of Hoth.” (See Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back for reference).

Broken things…including appliances are one of my many nemeses. It seems that repairs are a never ending reality in the Olson home.  Recently, I have had to repair two drive axles on the vehicle, trailer lights, more trailer lights, broken window, two flat tires, garage door and the furnace. 

When it came to the furnace…I had entered a region beyond my familiarity.  Just because the furnace was beyond my regions of expertise…I was not about to back down.  However, I was going to be smart about it.  I was going to wait until my wife was gone. I usually attack jobs like this when my wife is not home.  If she were home, she would insist on challenging my knowledge with questions like, “Do you know what you are doing?” Which I reply, “What’s to know…what could go wrong?”

“Are you sure you shouldn’t just call someone?” she asks.

“They would just get in the way.”

I am pleased to say that I was able to go where no man…or woman…living in my household had previously gone…and I successfully repaired the furnace!

“Honey, I repaired the furnace!”

“Oh great!...How about the freezer?”

“Ugh”

This is a time when I must recruit help.  I have come to realize that I will never be able to do all of these jobs on my own.  I must humble myself and “make the call.” 

“ISAAC, my son, it is time for you to learn to “go beyond” your current skill set and fix the freezer!”

“I don’t know how!”

“Exactly…today is the day you go beyond and learn!”

The Scriptures are filled with people going beyond their own capacities and abilities to do things that are way beyond themselves…people choosing to let God take them beyond what they can do…and people choosing to stay…and not go beyond.  The Gospel of Luke, reveals both.  First, you find a rich young ruler in chapter 18 who is challenged to “go beyond,” yet he stays.  Shortly thereafter, in chapter 19, we find another rich man, Zacchaeus, who does “go beyond,” and chooses to do that which the first rich man wouldn’t.

May we come to see that we are all called to go beyond.  We are called to go beyond our comforts.  We are called to go beyond our abilities.  We are called to go beyond what we currently know.  We are called to be transformed…and to spread the life transforming Gospel to all…even regions beyond.

“Hey Isaac…How is it going in there?  This is good for you…it helps you go beyond.  When you are done, maybe you can thaw yourself out and then fix the light switch.”