Somehow, it is Saturday again. It seems like it is happening every three days for some reason. One of the things people have noticed during this pandemic is that they lose track of what day it is. Maybe that has happened to you. I know there have been times when I have look at my planner to see which day it was. Strange days indeed. I do hope that you have managed to have a good week and that you are redeeming the time.
Yesterday, Michelle had asked if I would go over to the people’s house that she works for and help them out with a project. By that, it meant that I was going to actually do the work while they offered valuable insight. The homeowner has an old mailbox standing on the front porch that has been locked for a long, long time. He told me that it had a key in the lock for many years but one day the neighbor kid was playing with it and managed to lose it. His best guess was that it had been locked for 10 or 15 years. Now that he is getting older, it is very hard for him to reach through the mail slot and grab the mail. What he wanted me to do was to somehow remove the lock. Having had the privilege of removing several cylinder locks in my life, I knew that it wasn’t as simple as it may seem. So I armed myself with several tool bags which included everything from a drill and drill bits, to a hammer, a punch and a prybar. To an outside observer, it might have appeared that my target was the vault at the Federal Reserve or something of that sort. However, I was up against an aging cast iron mailbox and I wanted to be prepared. When Michelle and I arrived at the house, I began unloading my arsenal of tools while she went inside to do some work and possibly hide from the carnage that she suspected was about to take place. Once I was done hauling all of my stuff that amounted to half a Home Depot, I stood there for a moment staring down my opponent. One of us was going to be victorious that day and I had every intention that it was going to be me. After assessing the situation I recognized that it was a standard cylinder lock. Without a key, the only way I have been successful in the past was by using a drill and some gentle persuasion with a hammer and a punch. My one concern was if it would damage or destroy the cast metal mailbox in the extremely likely scenario that I missed the tool with my hammer. As I examined the construction of the mailbox to see if there was any other way to access the interior I noticed the hinges. Since it was cast metal, it had to use drop in pins to serve as hinge pins. In this case, it used a thin bolt with a nut for each hinge. It dawned on me that I had found another way in. I quickly tried to loosen the buts but to no avail. The years of corrosion had seized them in place. Fortunately, I had in my arsenal of weaponry a power saw. I put a metal cutting blade on it and went on the attack. It took less than 3 seconds for each bolt and the door was open at last. With as much fanfare as the opening of Al Capone’s vault, the long hidden inner chamber was now accessible. With the door removed, the locking mechanism was readily accessible and good be removed rather quickly.
It is interesting that for 10 to 15 years, the thought has been that someone needed to break the lock to get into the box. Obviously, it wasn’t very high on the priority list, but the thought remained. Finally, when it became too difficult to access the mail through the mail slot, it came time to act. All along the way, it was perceived that the lock was the problem. Without a key, someone needed to destroy the lock. However, the real problem wasn’t the lock but that there wasn’t access to the box. Fortunately, since I was new to the situation, I noticed something that had been there all along – the hinge pins. And I am glad that I did. It saved a lot of time and effort, and possibly the structural integrity of the box itself.
Isn’t that like a lot of situations in life? We get fixated on what we believe a problem might be and/or the only way of fixing it? That is why it is good to ask for advice from others. Many times they will provide a different perspective or insight that you haven’t considered. In fact, Scripture tells us that there is wisdom in a multitude of counselors. I am the type of person that likes solving problems. I love the challenge. However, if I am not careful, I can fall into that trap of thinking that there is only one way to solve the situation at hand. That is why I have had to grow in this area and seek wise counsel in many situations. I am thankful for the three guys I meets with on a regular basis. They have often provided valuable insight, sometimes gently and others times with a sledgehammer. I am also thankful for our church council and deacons. In the midst of the Covid Crisis, we have been meeting weekly (on Zoom, of course) and discussing our current ministry and what it might look like when we begin to re-open.
I don’t know what situations you are dealing with in your personal life. However, might I suggest that you seek out the wisdom of a godly person or persons to help you navigate through these times? They can bring a fresh perspective and possibly help you discover new ways of dealing with things that you haven’t thought of before. By the way, this is true not only in times of crisis but in all phases of life as well.
May God bless you in all ways,
Larry
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