I have a little hobby that I learned a few years ago. I decided one winter that I would learn how to do leather work. We lived in a rented house, on the top of a large, really steep hill. When it snowed, we would be stuck there for days. I thought leather work would give me something to do and keep me from driving my family crazy!
As I started to learn about how to cut, stitch and imprint leather, I found that I had more to learn than I could have imagined! I would go to the leather store (just loved the smell) and would walk around looking at things. Have you ever been involved in something that was so big and you knew so little that you didn’t even know how to ask a question? That was me and leather work in the beginning.
I soon got to know the folks that worked at the leather store, and would occasionally ask a question or take them something that I was working on. An older guy there named Denny got to be a real source of info. He would ask me, “Hey, whatcha workin’ on?” Denny you see, was an old leather worker. He had been a saddle maker for a lot of years, and knew how to carve and shape leather like a real artisan. He is very good.
He just loved for me to tell him what I was doing, and then he would smile and say, “You want to know a better way to do that?” I would always say “Yes!” I learned a lot from Denny. He was good at helping me, and always seemed to be so pleased when I would then come in with some new “thing” I had made using the new methods that he had shared with me. It was fun to see how much pride he took in what I had made… you see he was guiding me in the learning process. He was proud of my achievement.
He had helped a lot of people like me. That is why the leather store employed him. He knew how to “help” people, and then of course lead them to where they could get the stuff they needed to do the project right. He was there, full of experience and info, looking for some new person to come in so that he could “enlighten” them and help them begin this new hobby, and to show them how to be really good at it.
This is what we, God’s people, should bring to the world where we live every day. We have been blessed with tons of knowledge, knowledge that is really beyond our ability to even grasp. We see people looking around, wandering around looking for something, not even sure what questions to ask. Like me in that leather store. Wanting to know things, just with no idea where to start or what to do first.
There we are. We work where they work. We live in the same neighborhood. We pass each other at the grocery store. And there we are, God’s people, educated from the eternal fount of truth and understanding. And all we really have to do is just reach out with a question… “You know, there is a better way to do that, right?”
Most people don’t know. Most folks are walking around, unaware of what God teaches about love, about family, about commitment and choice, even fidelity. People long for knowing about the best way to live, and make decisions that will mean something in the future. They look for the answers that the world pokes at them. They seek for money, for a new title, for some new recognition. They look for more friends on social media, or the highest number of hits on Youtube. “I could be the next thing everyone is talking about…”
In fact, we have what everyone is really looking for – the truth. Truth that is not always easy, and certainly not always appreciated, but it is something real. It stands up to the test of time. It is strong enough to support the weight of our beliefs, and it doesn’t let us down when society decides to move in a new direction. This truth is eternal, and doesn’t need us to agree. We need it.
Share God’s truth with the folks that you know. It is a “sharp, double edged sword” Hebrews 4:12. But, through that truth, mankind can come to know Jesus, the saving grace of God, and be freed from sin.
Nothing else we have is so valuable, or so needed.
Bless someones life this week.
Tell them, “I know a better way…”
God bless,
JOE