This morning, I drove through the bustling metropolis of downtown Boiling Springs and noticed something interesting. They placed a new power pole just behind the current pole on the CVS corner of the intersection. I remember sitting in many meetings in the Webb Conference room and hearing trucks scrap or hit that pole. The stoplight has been taken out a few times by a semi that did not swing quite wide enough to make the turn. In fairness to the drivers, it’s a really sharp right turn, especially if you are not familiar with it.
My thought was not about the drivers or the trucks…but more along the lines of, “Why did it take so long to just move the pole back 8 feet? I realize there are many details to consider on a job like that– sewer and water lines as well as the rewiring of the lights and power lines that go through the intersection. But, my simple mind wondered, “Why didn’t that solution happen sooner?” It always seemed like a futile effort to put a new pole back in the same spot…only to have that pole taken out the next time that a new, inexperienced truck driver had a delivery that brought him or her through the stoplight. Albert Einstein is attributed with the quote, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
So after turning left onto 150, I thought about my faith journey. I thought, “How many times do I knock out a pole in my own life doing the same dumb thing I did the last time? Why don’t you just move the pole?!” In Jeremiah chapter 8, God expresses his disapproval of Judah for not accepting Jeremiah’s call for repentance. The Message Bible words the scriptures this way:
Jeremiah 8:4-5
“Tell them this, God’s Message:
“‘Do people fall down and not get up?
Or take the wrong road and then just keep going?
So why does this people go backward,
and just keep on going—backward!…”
Let’s stop running into the same poles in our life over and over again, sometimes even expecting them to move on their own. When we place the same obstacles in our way, over and over, we are going to hit them again and again and again. When we constantly return to things or places that make us stumble…it’s frustrating. It’s work–we have to reroute things and often learn a new way, but it is what God calls us to do. There is no deficiency of grace. He will be with us every step of the way.
So move the pole…
Grace, peace, and love,
Aaron
pastoraaronhinton@gmail.com
(704) 300-0081