Lessons from a pulverised bridge

An excavator on a low-bed lorry is somewhat lofty – a fact that should not be overlooked by the driver of the lorry. About ten years ago, my boss and I were asked to visit a pedestrian bridge spanning a major road, a request which - in itself - was not terribly remarkable. However, the bridge had been driven under by an excavator on a low-bed with effects that did turn out to be quite remarkable. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that the bridge had been DRIVEN THROUGH rather than DRIVEN UNDER. It was not a pretty sight. More to the point perhaps, the bridge now constituted a considerable threat to the cars and pedestrians that were passing underneath the ruins - with completely unjustified gay abandon I might add!

Standing at a safe distance, my boss and I wondered how we might secure the bridge until it could be repaired. The obvious solution was to block the main road, but a convenient detour was out of the question.

 In the midst of our ponderings, my brain was ambushed by an anxious question: “forget securing the remains of this bridge, how on earth are we going to repair it in the long run?” I verbalised the question, so my boss began drawing animatedly on a clip-board. 

“These are the buttresses, right? They seem to be fine. So what we could ...” Suddenly, he stopped mid-sketch with the look of an angler that has just pulled a red herring out of the water.

“Hang on a moment,” he said, “repairing the bridge is tomorrow’s problem. Today’s problem is securing it. Let’s get that sorted out first.”

He was right of course. But how often do we neglect the challenges of the present whilst fretting about the future? Fretting about tomorrow is utterly unproductive, and it cripples you today.

In the words of Jesus, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt 6:34).

So let us ask ourselves, “What is today’s trouble?” What does God want you to tackle right now? When walking, it is physically impossible to take more than one step at a time. Life is usually the same. God will give you the grace to deal with tomorrow’s problem tomorrow. When the time comes to jump, do it! And only then the safety net will appear. God will not provide the safety net today because you do not need it yet.

Cheers for now - Ian