Dreams in the Valley

“God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Excavation is underway at Trinity. The church and parish hall have been moved and the excavators have cleared away the rubble and begun the foundation work. John Benedict, working the back hoe, found a couple of marbles (not the kind one would find in the Louvre, but round glass marbles).

I looked around and found an old bone. I figure it must have been the funny bone from some critter – maybe a deer or antelope – as it made me chuckle. It was probably buried there by one of the local ranchers’ dogs, or a coyote. Who can know such things? I didn’t see any other bones or skeletal remains, so am certain it was a random find.

John and I didn’t argue over it, so it was no bone of contention, and work continued unabated – at least until I had a thought.

I have come to learn through some six decades of riding the earth ‘round and ‘round the sun that when thoughts come to me, most folks may want to stand back or at least don helmets or body armor. Things can get ugly pretty fast, but they’re never quite that obvious at the time.

I watched John dip, scoop, swing, and dump load after load of beautiful Madison Valley top soil into his truck for hauling and I wondered. I wondered, “Just how hard could that be?”

So I asked John, when the truck sped off to dump a load, “Do you mind if I give that a try?”

Now, normally John doubles the bill when his customers want to help, but I suspect he thought to himself, “Surely this is a man of God, what could possibly go wrong.”

Courageous man that he is, he stepped out of the cab and allowed me to take his seat. He gave me a quick run-down of how the controls work (one controls the boom and cab, the other the bucket and something else – ah, what is life without details, eh?). Anyway, at the time, I had an inkling of what the controls did, but no idea how to get them to work together in concert.

John, though, was good teacher – brave and true. He stood by my side while I gave his excavator a major case of the Shakes. I did not know Construction Equipment could suffer from Delirium Tremens, but apparently in the right hands it can! After what seemed an eternity, I dipped the bucket into the earth, scooped a load up into the bucket, swung around, and dumped it into the truck. Half a day later (it seemed) I got the bucket up out of the truck bed and swung back around to the dig site (without hitting the church). Since there were only about ten hours of daylight left and a lot more work to do, I graciously returned the Captain’s Seat to the Job Commander. I believe that was one of the wisest decisions I have ever made.

It was nerve-wracking, but fun.

One of the things I’m learning in life is how important it is not to take one’s self too seriously. I am a preacher, pastor, and priest. I am not now, nor will I ever be put in charge of skip-loaders, earth-movers, or backhoes – and that is just fine with me. I got to try my hand at working one piece of equipment one time, and it was an exhilarating and refreshing experience.

God has equipped each and every one of us with the skills, tools, and temperaments to do what God has called us each to do. Part of life’s joy is in discovering for ourselves what it is we delight in, and then “putting our hand to the plow” moving forward to do that work and “be” that people.

It is OK to not do some things well. It is a relief, in fact, to know that none of us is Omni-competent. Being able to do all things perfectly well is God’s job, not ours. What a relief that is.

We simply do our part to the best of our ability and know God delights in our endeavors. At the end of the day, God doesn’t throw us a bone; He throws us a party – a real hoe-down (you might say) in this, our valley (and beyond) – and that’s enough.