The Defective Screw

This is something that I wrote quite a while back now, it’s just that now seems as good a time to publish it as any.

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I was building a stud wall just recently. I was building my stud wall using 4″ screws instead of nails.
Well, it just seemed easier to me. Screw them in rather than bang them in and make all that noise.

I was using my electric screwdriver to power these screws in. It’s a lot quicker and easier to do that than to use a hand screwdriver, it’s a lot of hard work to use one of them.

So there I was quite happily building my wall using my electric screwdriver powering these screws in and making good progress with it.

When I came to one screw, I put the electric screwdriver on it, as I had so many times before, and pushed the button to drive the screw in.
The head of the screw wobbled and the screwdriver was thrown out of the head.
“OK, try that again.” I thought. So I did, and it did exactly the same thing again.

That seemed a bit strange as the screw was in the hole and everything was just as it should be. So I thought I’d take the screw out and have a look at it.

When I did I saw that the screw was slightly bent. That’s why the screw was wobbling.
So I just threw the screw to the side and I went to my big box of screws to get another one, as I’ve got plenty of them.
So I did just that. I picked my new screw up and put it in the hole and powered it down with no problems.

Then THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me.

A bruised reed he will not break…
(Sounds a bit like Matthew 12:20)

I stood there and just looked over to where I had thrown the screw and thought,
It’s strange that I should get a word like that when I’m doing this.

Well, anyhow. Seeing as I’ve got it I’ll just ponder it a little bit.

So as I was pondering things, I looked at the screw and I thought,
This screw, I suppose is a bit like me, and every one else.
I don’t mean that I’m bent because I’m not.
What I mean is we’re not quite right.
We’re not quite fully as we should be.
I mean we should know this as we’re told we’re sinners often enough, and that means that we not perfect just like this screw.

OK, so what?
What does this mean now?

Well, this screw, could I still use it?
Ultimately I think the answer has to be yes. It would still do what it was meant to do if I was able to screw it into the wood. The only thing is I couldn’t use my electric screwdriver and power it down.
After all that’s why I threw it away in the first place.
But if I used a hand screwdriver, I could quite easily screw this thing in and it would do it’s job.
It would hold firm and keep things held together as it should do.
It’s just that I would need to take a little bit more time and care with it and treat it slightly differently compared to the ones which are perfect.

Now the thing is, if I’m like this screw and so is every one else in my church who I know, then does that mean that we all need to try and take a bit more time and care with each other, rather than ploughing on through with the electric screwdriver.
Do we all need to stop and slow down a little?
Spend a bit of time and care with each other?
With a little bit of care and attention we can get the job done.
It might not be as quite as quick as we would want it to be done, but it could be done.

I suppose that this screw isn’t quite so defective after all.