Attempting to do the Impossible!

I had the opportunity to spend my college summers working road construction. I remember one instance in which the backhoes, dump trucks and scrapers were clearing out ten feet of dirt to get it down to were we could begin building the road up to grade. I was directing traffic making sure the dump trucks weren't getting in the way of the scrapers and vice versa when suddenly a black chevy came roaring onto the job site. We all knew it was the owner of the company who always confused whatever harmony we had already established. So sure enough, the owner started shouting orders and before you knew it the Foreman got hit by the backhoe; the trucks suddenly began running different routes and I was stuck in the middle of a lot of confusion. That's when our eyes met. In mid-sentence he began stomping his way to me with his finger pointing at me. "Why aren't you taking the *&%#$ grade!" he shouted. I told him I would get right on it, however the road still needed ten feet of dirt taken off of it before grade could be measured. Fifteen minutes later one the owner sidekicks showed up on the site with all the survey equipment to take grade. So I was supplied with all the equipment to do the job but the job was impossible to perform. I was left with two choices. 1.) don't do it or 2.) pretend to do it. So after a quick conversation with the Foreman we began faking it until the boss left. Although he had given me all that I needed to accomplish the job I still couldn't do it.

Often times our spiritual lives are like this. We have been commanded to do the impossible. As incapable as we are in ourselves, we wallow about compromising biblical commands or pretending we can do it through external conformities. Hence, legalism and relativism are the spiritual escape routes. It's often in these positions that we forget about grace! All of the biblical imperatives of Scripture are accompanied with the indicatives. In other words, God calls us to Gospel centered lives but he doesn't leave it there. He supplies all that we lack. In my situation on the job site their was no foreseen way out of the predicament. However, when the loving call of God comes upon us, and we are asked to live out Christlikeness in this dark world, he supplies GRACE! - the ability do the impossible. So fall in debt to grace and may God be glorified.