“My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:2

Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” she asked. I replied, “No. I’ve got some work to do around the house.” I kissed her, and she got in the car. She waved at me as she backed out of the driveway. I smiled and went back in the house. I thought, “She will be so surprised when she gets home.”

My wife, Amanda, has a collection of windmill shaped cookie jars. She has over seventy windmill cookie jars. She has been collecting for years. Some are valuable. She shows off her collection when company comes over. She is very fond of her windmill cookie jars.

Most of her cookie jars are kept in a large cabinet with glass doors. The other day, we took a vote for me to clean and dust the cabinet. Actually, Amanda took a vote of one to nothing for me to clean and dust the cabinet…

Last Saturday afternoon, I decided to do some household chores while Amanda was out running errands. I wanted to surprise her by cleaning her cookie jars and dusting the cabinet.

She had been gone for a little while when she called me and asked, “What are you doing?” I said, “I am about to clean and dust your cookie jar cabinet.” She said, “Honey, don’t do it now. Wait until I get home. I want to help you move my cookie jars.” I said, “I can do it,” and hung up. She called me four times in the next thirty minutes. She said, “Please wait until I get home. Don’t try to move my cookie jars by yourself.” I said, “I’m a grown man. I know what I’m doing.” And I hung up.

Instead of taking them out of the cabinet one at a time, I grabbed two or three in my arms. I was in a hurry, and that was the fastest way.

Suddenly, the lid fell off a cookie jar. It seemed to fall in slow motion. I watched it fall. It hit the floor and shattered into 8 or 10 pieces.

Immediately, I thought, “Amanda is going to kill me when she gets home.”

I got scared and I went straight for the gun – the hot glue gun. After a few minutes, ugly yellow strands of glue ran everywhere. I pieced the lid together, wiped off the excess glue, and put the cookie jar back in the cabinet.

I didn’t think she would notice. However, when Amanda returned, the first thing she noticed was the broken lid glued together. She said, “Why didn’t you wait for me? Why did you try to carry all that stuff by yourself? I told you I would help you.”

Sometimes in life, we try to carry a burden by ourselves when there is no need. Help is waiting. All we must do is ask for it.

The point is: God looks down at His hard-headed children, and asks, “Why are you trying to carry all that stuff by yourself? Why are you trying to carry all your relationship issues by yourself? Why are you trying to carry all that comes with raising your children by yourself? Why are you trying to carry the stress of your job by yourself? Why are you trying to carry all your problems by yourself?

The Bible says, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” In other words, God says, “I am your strength.”

Are you carrying a load that is too much for you? Cast your burden on the Lord and He shall sustain you.

Pastor James Collins serves at Fort Scott’s First Southern Baptist Church. He can be reached at (620) 223-2986 or through the webpage www.thepointis.net.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (1 Cor. 1:10)

Denominational splits might have been much fewer had churches put Paul’s advice into practice. Researching this topic, I was shocked at some of the petty arguments leading to denominational divides:

• Which picture of Jesus should hang in the foyer
• If a weed eater should be purchased or not
• If “deviled” eggs should be served at the church dinners
• If cranberry/grape juice instead of grape juice is a communion substitute
• Whether or not to add stall dividers in the women’s restroom

No doubt it was issues like these that led to the joke about a rescued man who had lived on a desert island for years. His liberators questioned why he had built three huts. “Well, the first one is my house, the second one is my church.” The obvious question followed: “What’s the third hut?”

“Oh, that’s where I USED to go to church!”

Sometimes instead of church splits, there are mere rifts:

• A three-hour meeting over whether or not to buy a new vacuum cleaner followed by a vote to determine which church members should be allowed to use it
• A quarrel over replacing a worship song with a Bible reading/ singing verses 1-3 instead of 1,2 and 4
• A squabble over where the pastor stood outside to greet the people after church
• A 45-minute spat at a women’s group meeting over whether dinner rolls for an upcoming church supper ought to be sliced horizontally or vertically
• A remodeling project in which an elderly man didn’t like the idea of recessed lighting and referred to the scripture about not hiding our light under a bush

One church elder wrote about his experience: “One time in our church staff meeting (9,000- member church in a very affluent suburb in North Houston), a 25-minute argument ensued over how many hot-dogs we should order for the 4th of July service celebration: ‘Should we order 1,200 or 1,500?’ There was a food bank/kitchen literally three blocks away that would gladly take the excess. But we had to argue over 300 hot dogs for 25 minutes … because, you know, they’re so darned expensive and ‘we have to be good stewards.’”

Typically, churches do not split over trivial matters. The most common splits happen over financial or doctrinal issues, members who have a sense of entitlement instead of service and dissenting church-goers who move from church to church, sowing seeds of discord. Nevertheless, they all leave in their wake hurt feelings and un-Christlike attitudes.

Imagine what would have happened had Paul’s appeal been practiced from his day forward. I think we all know the answer to that.