Still Desperate

We all need help at some point.  I remember in 3^rd grade I needed help learning to properly articulate my “s’s.”

On several occasions, I have found myself needing help on along the highway.  I have been stranded a couple of times when I have tried to stretch my last gallon of gas a little too far. In such cases, help of some form is needed…either a ride, or gas, or even a horse and buggy. Twice I have found myself stuck with a flat tire(s), once my rim was rusted to the vehicle making the spare tire irrelevant, and the other time I found myself stuck with TWO flat tires as I struck some debris left in my lane.  In both cases I had to call my dad for help.  Why dad?...because it was before cell phones and that is the only phone number that I had committed to memory.  In such cases I would usually walk to the nearest gas station and call “collect” (another reason for dad), from a pay phone and then wait for him to once again come to my rescue. 

I am now a father and finding myself going to the rescue of my own son from time to time.  As far as I know he has not run out of gas or been stranded on the highway with a flat tire.  Although, there was one time when I had to go help him because he hadn’t tightened his lug nuts tight enough and his tire had fallen off.  He called and said, “Dad something is wrong with my car.”

“Oh yeah? What’s going on?”

“Henry said, it looks like my tire was falling off.”

“Henry said???  What did YOU notice?”

“The back of the car was shaking pretty bad.”

I am not sure how he did it, but he made it into the school parking lot. When I arrived,  I found his car with the tire wedged kitty whompus into the fender.  Apparently, it came loose just as he parked.

When Isaac, was a young boy, there was a moment when he somehow slammed his hand into the side door of the minivan.  I was in the house and I heard him desperately screaming for help from inside the van which was inside the garage.  When I arrived to the garage and found him completely stuck and helpless with his hand in the van door I ran to help. 

I unsuccessfully attempted to open the door from the outside of the vehicle.  It wouldn’t budge.  I ran to the other side of the van and tried to open the door from the inside…all the while his hand remained crushed in the door and he is screaming.  Despite my attempts, I could not get the van door to open!  The door was not locked but it would not move.  In a final desperate effort I placed my feet against the opposite side of the van and my hands on the door and pushed straight out.  I was able to flex the door just enough to give him enough space for the hand to slip out of the door jamb.

We are all desperate, but we don’t always realize it until we find ourselves in a completely helpless situation.  When we are out of gas, stuck with a flat tire, hand stuck in a door or perhaps the wheels have come completely off, we desperately need help.

Matthew 20:28-34, shows us a couple of men who are completely desperate.  They are blind and they are begging.  They begin to cry out to Jesus in their desperation.  When the crowds rebuke them, the blind men begin to cry out all the more! Jesus knows our desperation and he wants to meet us in our desperation.  Jesus meets the blind men with his presence.  The greatest gift we can receive in our desperation is the very presence of God.

May we find the Lord meeting us in our own desperation.