Dad didn't go out dancing with my mom. The only time he ever danced was on Sunday afternoons for our amusement. He knew he looked a little silly, and that's why he loved to dance for us.
By learning to laugh at himself, Dad was less likely to be offended when others laughed at him. And that was an important life lesson. Those who are easily offended spend way too much time trying to defend themselves. They become defensive, argumentative, conflicted.
The scriptures have a lot to say about avoiding conflict... "Yanking a dog's ears is a foolish as interfering in someone else's argument" (Proverbs 26:17). "Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarreling" (Proverbs 20:3).
2. Don't let others use you... use yourself for others - Dad was a skilled plumber and should have been able to earn a good living at Krouses Plumbing and Heating. But he did too much work for free.
If a boiler broke down and there was no heat in a neighbor's house, Dad fixed or replaced the boiler, whether or not they could afford to pay him. And many times when we were out of town visiting friends or family, Dad spent the entire visit in the basement fixing something.
Some people have a way with words, others speak through their actions. Dad was the later. His life was a kind of proverb that declared, "Selfishness invites misery but selflessness summons contentment."
3. Nothing is ever so broken that it can't be fixed - Long after others might have given up, Dad would continue tinkering and tweaking until what was broken got fixed.
I worked as a piano salesman in Philadelphia for about a year while I was in college. The piano store was in the first floor of a two story building on Germantown Avenue. The second story had several neglected apartments and one of the apartments developed a signifcant leak in the sewage line right above the piano showroom.
My boss called a plumber who was unable to fix the problem, but that didn't keep him from sending a sizable bill for his trouble. After paying three plumbers to fix the problem, sewage from above still dripped on the pianos below.
I said, "I wish my dad was here. He'd be able to fix things." Dad and Mom lived several hours away in western Pennsylvania. My boss said, "Tell your dad I'll give him $200 just to come and look at the problem. Back then, $200 was a lot of money. A starting school teacher in those days made around $6,000 a year.
Dad came to Philly, diagnosed and fixed the problem in a couple of hours and then didn't want to take $200 for a few hours of work. So my boss found a number of other things that needed to be fixed until Dad thought he had done enough to earn the money.
I didn't grow up to be a plumber. God saw fit to pass my dad's ability to fix "things" on to my sons. But if Dad believed "Nothing is ever so broken that it can't be fixed," I grew up to believe "No one is ever so broken that they can't be fixed."
When John the Baptist was imprisoned and realized that his days might be numbered, he sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was truly the Messiah or if they should wait for someone else.
Jesus told them, "Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen - the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and Good News is being preached to the poor" (Matthew 11:4-6).
Then a little further down in that passage Jesus continued with this invitation, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heaven burdens, and I will give you rest" (verse 28).
Jesus was devoted to fixing broken lives. Sometimes they had "things" in their bodies that needed to be fixed. But many times it was their faith that needed to be restored or a relationship that needed to be healed, or a corrupt heart that needed to be cleansed.
Jesus probably never uttered the phrase, "No one is ever so broken that they can't be fixed," but his life shouted those words!
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