Wheelbarrows and Sawdust

Wheel Barrows and Saw Dust?

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” -Rom 12:2

This the story for this devo is adapted from the daily strength website at www.rbc.org. I want to give credit where credit is due.

I work in a school system as many of you already know. We are getting ready for the big test (MSA). We raise and fall on this test. If we do not do well we could be labeled as a “failing” school. So we do a lot of pre tests to determine what are the children’s strengthens and weaknesses. We observe a lot of teachers, in order to make sure that they are doing the correct things in their classroom. (pacing, hands on instruction, academic rigor, etc..). We do all these things because we are told what gets monitored gets done. If you are not monitoring something then it is likely to fall through the cracks. I read this story today….

Os Guinness tells a great story about a Russian factory worker in the days when Khrushchev was the prime minister. Because of the enormous economic strain in those days, employees would steal tools and just about anything else they could get their hands on. To stop the thefts, a KGB officer was placed at every factory gate where each worker was carefully searched for contraband. Petrov, a long-time laborer, pushed a wheelbarrow loaded with two large sacks of sawdust out the factory doors every day. Each day the guard searched through the sacks of sawdust but consistently found nothing. Weeks into this routine the frustrated guard finally said, “Hey, Petrov, I promise not to tell anybody. I can’t get what’s going on here. I don’t know why you need all this sawdust. What are you stealing?” Petrov grinned and whispered, “Wheelbarrows.”

We as Christians can easily fall into this trap. We monitor soooo many things that we do. We are always thinking about our ideas, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. I believe that these are great things to monitor but a lot of those things can be thought of as saw dust. The main thing that we need to check is our hearts. Let me ask you, how is your heart. How is your wheelbarrow that contains your ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes? Let’s not get distracted by our saw dust.

Matthew 15:1-10
1Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" 3Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' 5But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' 6he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 8" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"10Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "

Questions:

(1) What small areas of sin in your life (saw dust) are causing you to miss the big areas of sin (wheelbarrow) in your life?

(2)Why is it sooo easy to become ritualistic in your walk with Christ?

(3)Describe the state of your heart with Christ.