One More Step

And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. (Luke 23:26-27 ESV).

Today we are going to look at what I have taken to calling “the principle of one more step.” On Tuesday of this week I spent the day setting the posts and building the frame for the extension of our deck. We are going to the end of the house with the deck and that requires another section 16’ in length and 12’ wide. In order to support the decking, I needed thirty posts for the floor joists. Since the soil is clay and rock a small auger is not very effective. I was forced to dig each one with a shovel, pick axe, and post-hole digger. As you can see in this picture of the first part of the deck, it’s not as if we didn’t have enough to start with. I built that section in November. Have I mentioned that it is significantly hotter in June than it is in November in Texas? And, have I mentioned that digging thirty post holes in the heat of a Texas summer day is not my idea of fun? I was smart enough to begin early in the day. However, I was not smart enough to come in after it began to heat up. I really wanted to finish this part of the project by the end of the day. As the day wore on, the heat continued to take its toll on my ability to continue. In fact, by the end of the day, I still had the concrete to pour in the post holes to finish. I really wanted to quit. I was tired and no amount of sitting down for a minute or two was helping. I decided I would just pour one sack of concrete. I took the wheelbarrow and loaded it with one sack and immediately thought, “Well, maybe I can get just one more.” So I took two around to the site. Finishing that, I thought, “Maybe I can do two more.” I did. And, before you knew it all ten were finished. All ten bags was a task too large, while one at a time was more manageable. This is the principle Jesus models for us in our reading today. Carrying the cross all the way to Golgotha was physically too much to bear. Tradition tells us that he fell three times under the load until the soldiers compelled Simon to carry the cross for him. “One more step” allowed Jesus to finish what he started. We see from his emotionally charged prayer on Gethsemane the night before that he was struggling with his death. It was overwhelming to think of the whole of the experience; yet as he began to move forward with each phase of the ordeal he was able to finish. That’s the secret. We become so future-minded and goal driven that we often forget the individual steps. Completing each of those brings us that much nearer to the end. Whatever you are walking through today, please be encouraged to simply take one more step. That step may look very small in the fact of the whole task, but it is enough. Celebrate the taking of that step. It is a success in itself. God will give you the strength and direction for the next one; just take one. It may even mean depending on someone else to help. That, too, is a step. Take it.