Ten Pews and a Cargo Trailer

The inside of the church has been receiving a facelift. Part has been painting, and part has been replacing the old pews with modern padded chairs. Pastor Barbara expressed to the church one Sunday that she was praying about swapping the pews out with chairs. She asked everyone to be praying with her about that. Later in that week she mentioned to the property owner she was desiring this. He said that would be fine, and that he just happened to have some nice padded church chairs. He paid fifteen hundred dollars for some chairs from another church moving into a facility. They had their own chairs and did not want the ones that were already in the building. He had the chairs stacked and covered in his storage building. He said we could have them if we wanted them. Barbara determined that we would need about 70 chairs. We went and looked at them and there were 75 chairs. We gladly received the chairs that same week with thanksgiving unto God. God had provided before we ever asked. Now, to get rid of the pews. It was advertised and some were picked up by some people. With 10 pews left, a man from Tupelo, Mississippi came for them with an 18-foot cargo trailer. The pews were 10 feet long. We had the task of getting all ten pews in that trailer. They would not fit end-to-end. The trailer was not long enough. The pews did not stack one on top of another. There was the driver and three of us men and Barbara. It was like working a puzzle. We would try to envision the best way for it to go, then try it and have to try another way. We all had our envisioned ideas and suggestions. If one way did not work, we would have to take it out and turn it around and try it another way. The pews were very heavy and hard to handle. It took everybody making suggestions, being proved wrong, trying another way, submitting to another one’s suggestion, and trying that. We all had the mutual goal to get ten pews on the trailer. We all worked together toward that one goal. It was not my way or your way that was important. It was whatever is the way that works, that is the way to do it. In this way we got all ten pews in the trailer in the midst of sporadic rain. After the man drove off, the bottom fell out. This is the way things are accomplished in the kingdom of God. It is not my way or your way that is important. What is God’s way as revealed by the Word and Spirit of God? This is what will work. Sometimes we have to admit our idea of it was wrong and back up a go at it a different way. In this way, God’s goal of reaching the world for Jesus, with power, can be accomplished.

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