When Your Box Falls Apart

Have you ever felt like things in your life are falling apart and there is nothing you can do about it? Does life seem unnecessarily difficult on some days? Does your situation suggest that God might be unfair? What in the world is going on here? Why all the trauma and drama?

What do you do in times like these?

First, I try to put things into some type of perspective. Are we all still alive? Are we likely to live through this? Are all of our fingers, toes and limbs still attached? If the answer to all three questions is Yes, then I take a deep breath and calm down a bit.

If we are alive and not immediately bleeding to death, then maybe we can take a moment and slow the panic down a notch or two. I am really good at panic and if I can eliminate the hysteria, then maybe we can survive.

Secondly, I start looking closely at the massive mess we find around us. God has taught me that often the solutions and answers I need are probably within arms reach of the chaos and confusion.

This was brought home to me in an everyday crisis that happened to us a few years ago. I think about this often and I believe it merits retelling here today.

Our home on wheels has two doors. The front door has storage compartments. You can get in that way but it would be quite a climb. There is no inside handle on the front door. The entrance door is about midway back.

We came back to the BoggsMobile after lunch one day and the entrance door would not open. The bolt lock was unlocked and the latch pulled, but the door would not open. I lifted Kelly Jo up into the front door and she tried the latch from inside and it would not open. Something was broke inside the door and you can not take it apart from inside the bus.

If the latch had broken while we were all inside we would have been stuck! Kelly Jo would have been going out the window. I was able to take the latch apart from the outside and get the door open. I did not have time to take the door completely apart and I knew I could not buy that latch at WalMart or Lowe's anyway. I decided it was better to wait until I went to Nashville the next week.

We arrived at Prevost in Nashville a few days later and I took off the inside panel from the door. The latch was busted and Prevost had one in stock so I closed my eyes and bought it. I am so mechanically UNinclined it is not funny, but I had it tore apart, so my options were few. I waded in to see if it could be done.

While I was working I needed a tool that I thought was inside the bus. I was looking for the tool and picked up a cardboard box we keep in a junk drawer that has a little bit of everything. The box fell apart in my hands and all the contents went to the floor. 

The box that fell apart was full of all kinds of stuff. It contained wire nuts, staples, tape, screws, washers, screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure, hammer, rope, flashlights, wire ties and on and on and on. 

You get the idea? All of it went to the floor. All over the floor! The contents of the box slid 8-10 feet each direction on the wood floor. It was a mess! I was already under stress. The day was already a bona fide bad day. Then the whole box falls apart and I spill the contents all over the bus.

I found the tool I needed and began to install the new latch. I left the clean up for later.

I was almost finished when I ran into another problem. To complete the job I had to put a very small nut on a very hard to reach place and I had no tool to tighten it. I could not get it on. Just as I was about to give up, I remembered something I saw in the junk I had dropped all over the floor.

I remembered seeing a very small crescent wrench a good brother gave me years ago as part of an object lesson. I forgot the object lesson long ago and had no idea where the wrench was until the box fell apart in my hands and the contents spilled all over the floor.

You can see how small the wrench is when compared to a small set of finger nail clippers.

The small little wrench was the perfect tool for the task at hand. I could not have finished the job without the little wrench. Follow along with me here.

That means I could not have finished the job without the box falling apart and everything scattering all over the floor. Suddenly the broken box did not seem all that terrible.

I readily admit, this was not a life and death situation. This was not real trouble. But it was the trouble I was having for that day and it was troubling to me. I could not have finished the task for the day without the box falling apart in my hands and junk scattering every direction.

That speaks to me. I try to apply it to situations that are much more difficult and much less understandable. This is the lesson I have tried to apply.

The next time I feel like crying or quitting when things fall apart, stop. Look closely at the pieces scattered about. I may find that the very thing I need is waiting there for me among the scrambled contents of that broken box!

Broken boxes, jumbled contents and inconvenient messes may be the exact thing you need to solve your pressing problem.

By the way, I did get the door fixed!

Davy