When we moved from Chicago, the capital city of potholes, we thought we were largely done with them. Indeed the Chicago department of transportation even posts a daily pothole tracker to point out the location of the craters and how many have been patched in the past seven days.
Nashville this year has begun keeping its own score. The local news last night reported that for the past month crews had filled 100 potholes a day. I thought that was a little extreme until my car was almost swallowed alive by one crevasse of extraordinary proportions on my way to the park. I am now aware of big, deep, broken spots appearing daily on my way and carefully driving to avoid them. But as they languish, unfilled and not patched, they continue to crumble around the edges, becoming even bigger, deeper gaps in the pavement.
As I contemplated this new year back in January, I was convicted by the thought: step into the need. It is easy to complain and criticize and wait for someone else to do something about a problem (or potholes), but what can I do? I don't just need to identify needs and gaps, but respond to them. And as Steven Garber says in his book Visions and Vocations: Common Grace for the Common Good: "I can't do everything, but I can do something."
What I can do? I can't fill 100 potholes a day. But I can respond to one.
Potholes are visible manifestations of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, moving from a state of order to disorder. They won't heal themselves. Left untouched, potholes move along a gradual decline into chaos. What is the slightest inconvenience this week morphs into a car-sized crater. And impacts everyone around us.
What is the one thing I can do? To bring a my day before the LORD, listen with a willing heart, identify a need and fill in what I can. God will provide the wisdom and the way. It is not in me but Him. And in the process, He helps us. I can be faithful to the One who is faithful.
...and find grace
to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4.16Luci Shaw, a poet of faith, now in her 90s, admonishes us to "Reverse entropy" in whatever creative ways we can. "And good will come of it." Whether it is a kind word to encourage a lonely heart, reaching out to a neighbor, serving the church body in some capacity, creating a beautiful painting or poem to cheer a soul. Or even filling the deeper needs. It will cost something --selflessness always does--pushing back the darkness --patching the potholes on our stretch of the road--but as Luci says, "And good will come of it."
How we respond may not appear to be doing much, indeed the most profound rarely appears significant at the time. But God grants us divine appointments and sacred encounters that we would never expect. He has put us right here for a purpose. And this may be it.
Fill a pothole no matter how small it seems. It is never small.
What is the one thing I can do today? Step into the need.
His glory is there.
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