Christianity Oasis Forum

[vahn]

When I first heard these words I went "Ok , now , can you say that in English please." . They just bounced right off my skull , I mean , in my then world of "practise makes perfect" , " the more you do , the better you get" , "one-up the Joneses" and "always shoot for the best - the brass ring " , "Effort defeats itself" was a foreign language , until , that is , I came across a situation , or more likely our Lord "stuck" me in that situation to show me in my own "language" some 30 or so years ago and in turn , here I am typing about it (hmm , who woulda thought it huh ? Is our Lord Awesome or what !!)

Case scenario : U.S. military , jungle training in South America , my then MOS , track vehicle mechanic , at the same time of training we are also on full alert status , which means you eat-sleep-breath and go potty with your M-16 AT-ALL-COST ! (which by the way makes EVERYBODY jumpy as it is , but I'll get to that later)
Ok , middle of the night , or early morning hours "radar" wakes me , with a " APC down ! , is it done yet ?" attitude , and I'm like "Dude ! do you see that little black thing there ?" pointing at my rifle .

Anyway , we get to the APC , and the wire harness , with some at leat 12-20 wires is chopped right in half and the carrier is disabled , the driver of which is nowhere in sight , tap on the shoulder says we're under fire !!" . Okkaayy .. run ? stay ? what ? , so I opt for micky mouse duct tape jobbie on the harness but , when trying to couple it (screw it back in) the thing would not budge , now I'm sweating bricks ! No matter what , try with your left hand , try it with your right , try it with your FOOT !! uh uh ! and of course to top it all off , at times like this EVERYBODY around you becomes an expert right ? , out of sheer frustration I get out of the APC , reach for my rifle and start firing at it , THERE !!
I turn around and I meet six M-16 barrels trained at me !! At the very same time we hear the magneto going and the engine turns !!
The driver had been asleep all along , when heard the shots , instinct tells him to jump and start the motor . See , I'm too bz fighting with the coupling to fit right , all the while , it was making connection , but NOOOO !

Effort defeats itself ! We think the harder or more often we pray , the more we read the Word , the more we "talk" to God , go to church , do this do that , will make a "better" connection , end result ? Frustration ! Why ? I mean ok , let me put it this way , Jigsaw puzzle , right ? do we put it together to "get" a puzzle ? No , we already GOT all the pieces !! all we have to do is put it together . God ALREADY GAVE US A NEW LIFE all we have to do is GROW and MATURE in it , NO effort needed , in fact the more we try to "fix" it the more we forget that there is NOTHING TO FIX !

Dunno , this is what I woke up with this morning , chances are the next time I read it probably end up deleting it .

But ...


In Christ , our Lord