Involve Me in Every Activity
A story is told of a young man who started a moving company. He was very excited about helping families and other people move from one place to another. He thought it would be a great opportunity to own his own business and to bring in others as the business grew to open up other locations across the country.
With the first location, he needed some help. Since he was also involved in the moving process, he knew what to look for: someone who was a hard worker, diligent, strong, able to lift furniture, careful with household items to not destroy people’s property, and willing to start first thing in the early morning and work until the job was complete. Should he need them to move someone cross country, they should not tied down but be totally liberated to do so.
A woman applied for the position. He interviewed her himself because it was his company, which was still fairly small. She was very quiet and non-demanding in her personality, but she met all of the qualifications, except the physical abilities – at least that’s what the owner thought. However, she produced for him several certificates that confirmed that she was able to lift, without any assistance, three times her own body weight and that she was physically fit due to several national and international weight training and competitive weightlifting programs. The owner sat quietly in his office, and he knew that she was the one for the job; however, he still was not ready to bring on a woman and have her lifting heavy objects. His mental model of a woman doing this kind of work was unheard of, but he thought to himself, “I’ll try her out for a 30-day probationary period, just to see how she works. I’ll put her on my truck and this way I’ll be able to watch and work with her firsthand.”
When the day came for them to move a family of seven that also had an in-law suite with retired parents who were limited in their mobility, he thought this would be a perfect job to see if she could handle the work.
The early morning day began at 4:30 am instead of the regular 6:00 am start time due to the number of rooms to move. The packing was certainly easy, and he thought to himself, “This is no problem for her. She showed up on time and she had been successful in beginning the packing, organizing the boxes, etc., in order to pack the first truck just right.” However, when it came time to actually move the furniture, lifting it and moving it from the home to the truck, the man thought, “I’ll just let her take the easy furniture and place it on the truck. I’ll get the heavy furniture. I just can’t see her doing this heavy lifting.”
Well into the evening, the work was getting done, but he realized that he was doing most of the work as most of the furniture was heavy. Every time he would see her approach something that in his eyes looked enormously beyond her strength level, he rushed over and said that he would take care of it. This continued on until well into the night. They had only completed the first part of the house with him only allowing her to move easy items, which were all taken care of and strategically placed on the truck for adequate removal, including even the in-law suite. She had taken care of all of the “light duty” items, or at least the items that he had entrusted to her care.
But when darkness began to fall, he realized that he still had an entire half of the house to do of heavy objects. She kept asking him, “Can I help?” and reminding him that this is what he hired her to do. After several attempts, she finally retreated to the sidewalk. She was sitting on the curb, watching him lifting heavy objects, which kept falling over and him falling with them. On his last fall, he asked, “Why won’t you help me? You see me falling, you see me tripping up, and you won’t at least lend me a hand?”
She said to him, “I gave you my qualifications when you interviewed me for the job. I made it abundantly clear that I am more than able, in fact, quite capable to do this job, lifting both the not so heavy and the extremely heavy furniture items. Yet every time I asked you if I could assist, you would not accept my help. In fact, you took joy and trying to do it on your own, as though I was taking something from you by helping you. I am your helper, but if you do not allow me to help you, I will not force myself on you.”
Does this sound familiar to you? This is the Holy Spirit! He is our Helper! In fact, He is our Advocate, one called alongside of us to walk through life with us. Jesus calls Him the Comforter. In fact, Jesus tells us that when He goes away, He will send a Comforter to us. John 14:16 (NLT) says: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever.” The KJV says, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever” (emphasis mine).
The fact that Jesus says “another” says to us that Jesus, Himself was our Comforter that Father God gave to us to die for us. Once He returned to the Father to sit at His right hand to make intercession for us, the Comforter – the Holy Spirit – would (has) come.
Friend, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman! He will not involve Himself where He is not asked nor invited in. The challenge is to no longer move about life doing, handling, and maneuvering on our own. We need the Holy Spirit, and He is available for the asking. Involve Him – He desires to help you, comfort you, guide you, instruct you, and counsel you. Involve Him by asking Him into your daily life’s activities. He’s waiting on your invitation.
