In Whose Hands...

An all too familiar despair in life is the one that comes from thinking a problem requires only a quick, simple, fix and then discovering it demands an extensive, expensive, elaborate repair. Those who assume responsibilities know this sinking feeling. You take your SUV for a $19.99 oil change and the diagnostician locates you in the waiting room and gives you a $999.99 estimate of what it will take to save your vehicle. You call in an electrician for what you believe is a faulty receptacle, and he informs you that the source of the problem is a needs-to-be-replaced service panel. More seriously, you go to the doctor for what you think is bad reflux, curable with a prescription of the right inhibitor, only to have him do an emergency scope that reveals life-threatening esophageal cancer. There is also a great joy in life: It is to have concluded that something requires an extensive, expensive, elaborate repair and then to discover it needs only an inexpensive, quick fix. Here’s a personal example of when I recently felt the despair: I had a drain leak in our house that I anticipated only required an elbow fitting be replaced. It took five days, requiring cutting an 8-foot length through the concrete of our house and replacing the plumbing under the slab. Here’s an example of the joy: Our refrigerator recently stopped cooling. I was sure that we were going to have to purchase a new one. Taking off a panel to reveal the inner workings and wiring of our fridge, I discovered a wire that had vibrated loose from its terminal connection. After I pushed it firmly into the connector, our refrigerator began working again. Many times, I have learned that the diagnosis and outcome is determined by in whose hands you place your problem. What of the $19.99 oil change turning into a $999.00 major repair? A recent investigative report discovered that some oil change services train employees to discover some non-existent problem with clients’ vehicles, or worse, to sabotage vehicles so they require more service. What of the anticipated expensive repair turning out inexpensive? Recently, I thought my truck’s timing belt had slipped. Then, I discovered a throttle body cable that had come loose. I fixed it, at no cost, in minutes. What matters is in whose hands we place our problems: I read an author’s account sharing of his daughter who suffered greatly with a disease that, while she was yet very young, required joint replacements throughout her body. She had an ankle replacement that failed. For eight years she lived in excruciating, debilitating pain and impaired mobility. Her surgeon told her the artificial joint would need to be extracted and her ankle fused. She was facing possible amputation of her foot. Four days later she went to a new physiotherapist. He attentively listened to her. Then he put his powerful hands around her ankle and began to compress it while having her move her foot. After forty seconds a bone slipped into place. Her pain immediately disappeared, and she could walk. Until her ankle was in that physiotherapist’s hands, she was anticipating amputation after years of pain and immobility. What wonderful things can happen if we place our problems and crises in the powerful hands of God. Our despair of the insurmountable could quickly turn into the joy of His intervention, strength, grace, or help. Even minor things taken into our own hands or placed in the hands of those who are incapable, or even malevolent, can turn even an easily fixed problem into destruction. There’s no problem Satan can’t make worse. In God’s hands, whether something requires a quick fix or extensive repair, there will never be need to despair.

In Whose Hands...

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