Today a colleague and I had to attend a safety meeting for a company we do work for.

We arrived on site only to find that my card had not been activated so my colleague went through the security barrier and left me the vehicle keys so that I could sit in the bakkie (pickup) and wait for him to finish.

Unfortunately, he handed me the wrong key and I could not unlock the vehicle as there was no button to push, so I stood for an hour in the icy wind and freezing cold.

He finally came out of the meeting and I met him with the following “well, these weren’t much use” as I handed him back the key.

He calmly walked to the vehicle and unlocked the passenger door for me with the same key!

We were in one of the older work vehicles and it still had an ‘old-fashioned’ key – no buttons to push – you physically had to put the key in the door and unlock it!!

Up until the last few years all vehicles we drove had similar keys but I have become so used to modern technology that it didn’t even enter my mind to insert the key in the door lock.

I had the right key in my hand, I had the knowledge how to use it and yet I still spent an hour feeling miserable in the freezing cold!

How often isn’t that the case in real life?

We are in the right relationship, we know how relationships should work and yet because we have become so used to responding in a negative way  we continue to be miserable in the relationship.

We have the right child, we have the tools to disciple that child but because they are not responding in the way we want them too we stop making the effort to disciple with patience and care.

We have the Bible (the key) in our hand, we have the knowledge available to us to live a joyous life but we continue to be miserable, downtrodden, worried and guilty.

I had the right key in my hand and the knowledge how to use it but I have become so conditioned to modern technology, the ease of just pushing a button that I stood in the cold for an hour instead of being snug and warm in the cab of the vehicle.

Maybe we need to stop listening to all the ‘modern’ ways of how to live in a relationship, how to raise our children, how to be a child of God and start going back to the very first key ever given to mankind – the Bible. And a second key – Prayer.

“’And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever doors you lock on earth shall be locked in heaven; and whatever doors you open on earth shall be open in heaven!’ (Matthew 16:19)
To all who believe in Christ and obey His words, the Kingdom doors are swung wide open.” (LAB)

You hold the keys in your hands, don’t stand in the cold.

P.S.
The guys in the workshop and my husband had a really good laugh!!