AN OLD METAL DESK

Life seems like an old metal desk. I saw it by the curb with a “make an offer” sign on it. It looked like a sturdy thing for my husband’s garage workbench. My father had a big old heavy wooden one in the basement. Bill brought it home that day and started organizing his tools. This morning I smiled as I thought about the old desk and how it is a little like our lives.

The legs are sturdy and well planted, like being well grounded in the word of God. The drawers are a different matter. As we get busy, we can compartmentalize the important things in our lives in order to have a clear differentiation between tasks and responsibilities. But, if we do that too well, the smooth transition or flow of the complete self from one part of our lives to another, is blocked. And yet, that’s not totally bad. A university administrator once told me, “We were raised to do everything well. When we worked, we worked hard and when we played, we played hard.” We must make sure that our compartments are helpful in sorting things out and not used to isolate us from being able to find joy in all we do.

The old desk had a missing lock and the hole gapped in the middle like a first-grader’s smile. But, that lack of security made access to the contents easier, like walls we finally tear down around our wounded ego.

The top was smooth and seemed to be waiting for Bill’s next plan to complete. Right now, I hear him sanding on the metal frame he is constructing for a fun cart. The waiting, open surface is like God standing there, ready to receive whatever problem or puzzle we lay in his warm lap.

To top off the desk’s history, it came out of the Dan Quayle Museum here in Huntington, so it has a pedigree. We too have an ancestry, the linage of a king, for we are children of God, inheritors of all he has through belief in his son, our brother, Jesus Christ. So, in some ways, we too are like an old metal desk, with much use still in us, just waiting for our Father to give us our next blessed task. Let us pray:

“Loving Father, God of all, we praise your holy name. We pray that your kingdom may come swiftly, in your own time. We thank you for all the tasks you have intrusted to us. May we always be aware of what is your work and what is self-aggrandizing. Wherever we can work for you in secret, we seek that blessing. We know we will be of use to you as long as we draw breath for that is why we were created, to serve and to love you. Forgive us when we bemoan our privilege, to work untiringly for you. Increase the surface of our desks that we may receive from you and be ready to provide a clear surface from which to build your next project. In the name of Jesus our Savior we pray. Amen”
Doris
Copyright 2010 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”