On Potholes And Responsibilty

The story is told of a young man who chose to take on a problem that plagues many American cities — potholes. This particular pothole was located at an intersection near his home. It had been there for as long as he could remember. Residents in the neighborhood had developed the skill and habit of driving around the pothole, while strangers learned about it the hard way.

One day, the young man decided that enough was enough and decided to fix the pothole. He and his brother stopped in at a local hardware store and purchased some sand and cement. Upon learning what they were going to do, the store owner loaned them a shovel, a concrete mixer, and the volunteer efforts of his son.

Just as soon as they began filling in the pothole, several passing motorists parked their cars and began directing traffic around the three men at work filling in the pothole. Some passing children made “Wet Concrete” signs to put around the pothole once the work was done.

All in all, there were nearly twenty neighbors who participated in the project of filling the pothole. Together, they handled a problem that had bothered all of them for several years. All it took was “one” person who was willing to step forward and take on the responsibility for seeing that the problem was resolved.

Bottom line: It’s one thing to define a problem and forever theorize about solutions to it, and quite another to actually solve the problem!

Dear reader, like the young man in the above story, let’s be the one person who willingly steps forward, and with God’s help, take on the responsibility of seeing that problems in the Lord’s church are resolved! (note Barnabas in Acts 9:10-31).

We might even be surprised as to who shows up to help us!

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets