Take the Tools Off the Shelf

I was pretty terrified of a loud, dangerous monster for over eleven years. It was big and green and lived in our shed, and it came out at least once a week, but only in warm weather. In its wrath and frustration, it spewed torrents from its mouth, and it shredded anything that got in its way. My husband could tame it, but I left it strictly alone.

Who else has a riding lawnmower? ;)

We bought the beast when we moved into our current home eleven and a half years ago. Our new property had nearly an acre of grass, but it wasn't flat, open land. Most of it was sloped in some shape or form, and a good portion of it was fairly steeply graded and riddled with tree roots.

I lost a cousin several years ago in a tractor accident, where the tractor flipped over on top of him and pinned him to the ground, and by the time anyone found him, it was too late. So -- in my eyes, this green monster in my shed held the same latent threat, and I refused to touch it.

My husband took responsibility to manage this tool, and I kept my distance.

Fast forward to 2021. My parents moved into the house next door, which also sported a near-acre of yard space. Given their age and situation, my husband and I decided we would take on the responsibility of keeping up with their grass-cutting, too.

As this responsibility sank in, I decided it was time to face my fears of the green beast, head out to the shed, and make use of this tool that I've kept at a respectful distance these eleven years. My husband could continue to do the whole thing, but I felt ineffective and, yep -- somewhat lazy -- sitting on the sidelines as he struggled to manage his time enough to keep both properties mowed.

So one Saturday morning, he took me out to the shed and rolled up the garage door and there was the beast in all its resplendent, green, grass-stained glory. My husband handed me a new pair of ear-plugs -- "It's loud," he said -- and showed me how to back the monster out of the shed, open the throttle, turn on the ignition, put it into gear, turn on the blades, and drive. 

I looked at one of the semi-steep hills, and Tim shrugged. "Just hang on!" he shouted above the roar of the beast. 

The beast had very little to "hang on" to, but as I wheeled around both yards and tilted this way and that in my efforts to figure out how to manage the thing, I realized that with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the back of my little padded chair, I had full access to the beast's effective power.

And now I'm ready for the last section in James -- James 5:13-20. 

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the Name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:13-16).

These tools, to summarize, are: prayer, praise, healing, confession, and forgiveness. All of these tools are "powerful and effective," and all of these tools are at the disposal of "the brothers," the church to whom he is writing, as we see just ahead of this section in verse twelve: "Above all, my brothers..."

Also, these tools, to be clear, aren't the only tools accessible to followers of Jesus. We are equipped with tools of defense against the enemy (Ephesians 6:13-16), tools of offense in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12), tools of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13, Romans 12:6-8), and many others. 

Sometimes, though, I think we focus too much on spiritual gifts, and in so doing -- we become ineffective as we allow opportunities to pass us by. I'm trying to think how best to say this: 

I've seen prophets prophesy and healers heal and preachers preach and teachers teach and intercessors intercede with some incredible results, etc, and when they truly step into the role that the Lord has asked them to play, when they take the tools off the shelf that the Lord has given them to use, they are powerful and effective in the work that God has planned, in advance (Ephesians 2:10), for them to do.

But God doesn't only give one tool to one person. I've seen healers intercede and I've seen teachers prophesy and I've seen preachers evangelize, etc. I've seen people glance sideways at the green beast in the shed after eleven years of no contact, crawl onto the cracked faux-leather seat, and begin a powerful work with little experience or gifting, because there was a need.

And so that tool comes off the shelf, and the one who wields it, no matter their resume, the years of their experience, or their expertise level, can be effective, because they use that tool in faith that the Lord will make that tool effective. A tool on a shelf will never accomplish anything. A tool in motion is a different story.

James says in 5:17: "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."

Elijah, as most of us know, was one of the greatest prophets in Israel's history, a mouthpiece for the Lord to speak to Ahab and Jezebel and into the politics of that time period. He didn't die; he was instead taken to heaven in a fiery chariot before Elisha's eyes, and another prophet (who lived much later) Malachi prophesied that Elijah would return "before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes" (Malachi 4:5). So most of the Jews to whom James is speaking have raised Elijah in respect status almost to deification. Not completely, since that would be idolatry, but he certainly had quite an elevated pedestal. Peter, James, and John recognized him immediately when he stood with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus; they knew that Elijah (and Moses, too) had some major spiritual clout.

But James levels the playing field: "Elijah" -- the same guy who prayed for fire from heaven and the Lord fulfilled his request, the same guy who prayed that it wouldn't rain on the land for three and a half years, and the Lord fulfilled his request, the same guy who prayed for the widow's dead son, and the Lord brought him back to life, the same guy who outran a chariot and horses all the way to Jezreel to beat the rain -- "Elijah was a man just like us."

So next time you eye the praying tool and think: "God doesn't listen to me; my faith isn't great enough..." Get your hands out of your pockets and put them on the tools where they belong. Wield them.

Next time you see the healing tool, or the evangelistic tool, or the preaching tool, or the teaching tool, or the speaking-in-tongues tool, or the prophesying tool, or the interpreting tool...

Even if you know that's not necessarily the gift the Lord has seen fit to bless you with...

If that tool has made its way into your shed, it's meant to be used. So use it. The Lord gives us tools for a reason.

With this as context, James ends his letter in 5:19-20: "My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins."

I've seen many people lose hope in the Lord, grow blind to the powerful realities of His work in the world, and turn away from Him. You know what my first impulse is, because I'm human and because I'm selfish and self-preservative? 

I'm not an evangelist; I can't witness to them.

Do I know the redemptive work the Lord has done in my life, and am I able to talk about it? That tool is in my shed, and I need to use it. 

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray." Not just if you feel called to intercessory prayer. Get that prayer tool off the shelf, open your mouth and your heart, and pray. 

"Is anyone happy? He should sing songs of praise." It doesn't matter if you can't carry a tune in a bucket; open your mouth and your heart and warble out the notes of praise to the One Who laid Himself down on that cross, spread His arms wide, and died for you. He's not concerned with the quality of your voice; He's concerned with the quality of your heart. So get that praise tool off the shelf.

"Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord." And by faith, that faith that is greater than the size of a mustard seed, the Lord will heal. 

"But the Lord didn't heal me, and I had faith that He would."

Let me point you to the big picture Isaiah gives us in Isaiah 55:8-9: "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.'"

In other words, what I think healing looks like might not be what God's healing plan is, but He still heals. I've experienced it -- physically, miraculously, in the way I hoped He would heal me -- and I've also experienced it in the waiting and the disappointment and the lack, because He was healing my heart instead.

Our job is to get the tool off the shelf and out of the shed. Put one hand on that steering wheel and maneuver that tool. Put the other hand on the foundation where you plant yourself and "hang on." We may not get to see the finished product; we just get to faithfully cut the grass.