Don’t you just hate it when you borrow something and then break it or damage it in some way?  That’s one reason I would rather buy something than borrow it.  I really hesitate asking anyone if I can use something that I could possibly damage because I am pretty good at breaking things.  In fact, when we were young, my mother once told my brother and me that we should go into the wrecking business when we grew up because we were so good at it!

Well, against my better judgment, I borrowed a neighbour’s sledge hammer to put landscape ties around a garden at our trailer.  Really what can you do to a sledge hammer?  It’s made to take a pounding; the word “sledge” makes you think of something that inflicts damage, not gets damaged. It’s strong, heavy, and has been called a persuader, punisher, the big guy.

I borrowed an 8-pound sledge – not the biggest you can find but there was no question that it would do the job.  We had twelve inch galvanized nails to go through two landscape ties … no problem.  However, I managed to break the handle.

I’d like to say that it was my brute strength that powered through the nails and put such force on the sledge hammer that the handle couldn’t compensate for the torque I put on it and, therefore, it broke (sounds good, doesn’t it?).

Well, it didn’t happen that way.  I had hammered in the first nail only to realize things weren’t aligned properly and I needed to take that nail out and start again.  Rather than use a pry-bar, I grabbed the nearest thing and wedged the sledge between the two pieces of wood.  Using my brute strength, I yanked on the handle with such force that the sledge hammer couldn’t compensate for the torque I put on it and it broke.  Ok, so basically I used the sledge hammer as a wedge instead of a hammer.

Now I had done two things I didn’t want to do:  I didn’t want to borrow the sledge hammer in the first place, and I certainly didn’t want to break it.  So, it was off to the hardware store to either purchase a handle or buy my neighbour a complete new sledge hammer.  When I saw the $40 price tag for an entirely new one, I decided to buy a handle for only $12.

I’m not going to write about changing the handle as I have yet to process that brutal experience, but here’s the thing:  Sometimes when we pray we try to get God to agree with what we want Him to do.  We try to put God in a place of having to respond to our request or need the way we want Him to.

Often times we get upset when God doesn’t respond the way we think He should.  We should get upset, however, because we are praying the wrong way.  It’s like we are breaking our prayer.  Prayer is meant to align us with God’s will, not get God to align with what we want.  When we use prayer in the proper way, it works really well.  When we don’t, and use it for our own purposes, we’ll find it breaks.

By the way, when I used the sledge to hammer the nails, they went in like butter.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: When you pray, how can you align yourself with God’s will rather than forcing your will on God?  Leave your comment below.