All of us have seen cement mixers traveling up and down the road. Most of us have had them deliver concrete to our homes for some construction project or porch extension. As they make their ways from the cement plants to their destinations, their circular drums constantly churn the mixtures within to keep them from hardening and becoming useless.
A friend of mine who once worked for a concrete company recently shared one of his memorable experiences with me. The firm he worked for would often hire local men as day laborers to drive their cement trucks. The arrangement usually worked well benefiting both the drivers and the company.
On one occasion, however, one such driver was on his way to deliver concrete to a construction site when his truck broke down. In the age before cell phones and GPS locators, the driver simply climbed out of the cab and took off on foot leaving the concrete to harden in the mixer. By the time the company located the truck, its cargo was rock solid and completely useless as now was their truck also. It had become an enormous paperweight.
Because my friend was lower on the totem pole than many other employees, he was appointed the unenviable task of climbing inside that metal drum with a pneumatic jackhammer to chisel out the other man’s negligence one small fragment at a time. Sadly, this was also before hearing protection was valued on the jobsite so we can only imagine the ring in his ears after a day inside that echo chamber with a jackhammer singing incessantly.
While my heart goes out to my friend who I’m sure still suffers some hearing loss from his experience, this incident has broader lessons for all of us. How often have we encountered a difficult problem and simply fled the scene? Instead of hanging around to attempt a repair or making an effort to solicit help from another, we just got out of dodge fearing that someone might blame us.
Sadly, when we do so, the problem usually gets worse. Like the cement in the mixer, what once was a manageable headache becomes a solidified obstacle requiring great time, effort, investment, and pain to remove.
When we attempt to escape our problems by running away from them, inevitably they become more challenging for whoever must come behind and solve them. We all make mistakes, encounter challenges, and face difficulties. This is sometimes due to our own action or inaction and sometimes just because we live in a fallen universe.
Regardless of the cause, however, we shouldn’t make them worse by fleeing the scene leaving someone else with the necessary but horrible chore of cleaning up our messes. One sign of maturity is to take responsibility for whatever problems we create or that may come our way rather than ducking and dodging and taking the easy way out.
Many times we encounter breakdowns in our relationships with family, friends, and fellow brothers and sisters in the church. When we refuse to do the tough and uncomfortable work of attempting to resolve those conflicts according Jesus’ guidance in Matthew 18, they gradually solidify to a point where they are nearly impossible to remove.
Perhaps you’ve got one or several cement mixers sitting beside your life’s road with hardened concrete inside crippling that aspect of your life. Christian friends, pastors, and counselors can help us chisel away the solidified issues. Even better, God’s Holy Spirit is powerful enough to dissolve even the hardest problems if we invite and allow Him to do so.
The next time we see a cement mixer darting here or there, let’s be reminded not to leave our problems to harden for someone else to fix. And let’s seek whatever help might be available to prevent them from becoming worse.
Blessings, George