Why?

Yesterday I had the privilege of helping someone.

I call such instances privileges now a days.  I don't always get to lend a hand to someone in a real, tangible way.  Most of the work I do as a pastor takes months, even years to become visible.

So, I enjoy a chance to really see the fruits of my labor when I assist someone.

Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I loaded up the two youngest kids and headed to Bellville to pick up my oldest from school.  My oldest had a PTO program that evening, and it was going to be easier to pick her up, go to the park to get her homework done, grab a bite to eat, and then get her back to her program at school.  We were making a turn toward Bellville when we saw a mini-van on the side of the road with the hazard lights flashing.  A woman was walking around talking on her cell phone. 

Being the type of people we are, we stopped.  I got out and walked back to the woman and found out she was one of the teachers at my middle child's pre-school.  I walked around the side of the van and found that she had a massively flat tire.  I offered my assistance.  She said she had called tripple A.  I told her I could get it done faster, and she accepted since she had a very busy afternoon ahead of her.

That's when I got to work.  But, of course, I had to scope out where the spare was on this van and get all the tools together to change this tire.  After a matter of moments, I was mentally cussing out the engineers at Dodge.

I mean, who in their right mind places a spare tire just behind the front axle in a vehicle?  Not the back axle where it might not exactly be easy to drop the tire down and remove it, but it's at least pretty accessible--but the front axle.  Right smack dab in the middle of the chassis of the vehicle.  Morons.

I literally had to jack up the front of the vehicle so that I could even get the spare tire out.  Jack up the vehicle JUST TO GET THE BLOOMIN' SPARE!   Come on.  Really?  This had to be a joke?

Why?

Why in the world?

Why in the world would you do this to drivers?

A few choice words went through my head; some of them related to a certain eternal place of fire freezing over before I ever bought a Dodge Caravan.

After I got the spare down, it was only a matter of moments for me to change the flat.  We were on our way again in no time.

But I kept thinking. Why?

Then I remembered seeing a little decal in the back.  It was a decal highlighting the stow and go feature of this mini-van.

Stow and go.

You can drop the seats down and make a level platform for hauling, etc.

But those seats have to go somewhere.  They have to go into wells dropped into the chassis.  The back seats drop into those wells, and that's normally where the spare would go.  Since the spare couldn't go there, it had to be moved.

BUT TO THE FRONT AXLE?

Apparently, the engineers couldn't come up with a better spot.

So....

In order to enjoy the stow and go feature of this vehicle, you had to make it hard as the dickens to change the tire.  In order for one convenience, you had to make something especially difficult.

Ah, the law of unintended consequences.

How many times are we hamstrung by such a thing?

Even in the life of faith...in the life of the church...

I remember growing up heading into my teenage years.  I remember my grandfather getting very sick and weak.  I watched him struggle with a simple task one day, and I commented, "Grandpa, I can do it for you."

I had the best of intentions.  I wanted to help my grandfather.  But he started crying.  It was the first time I had ever seen him cry.  He was a World War II vet.  He was a farmer.  He was German.  He never showed any emotion other than laughter at times.  He was stern.  He was hard.  Nothing seemed to break his confidence or his shell.  But my offer of help did. 

For so long he had been strong, dominant, an Alpha male of the species.  And now he couldn't do a simple task--one a child could do with ease.  My words sent him into a state of grief that I had never seen before.  A simple offer of help had some drastic, unintended consequences.

My dad later explained to me what happened.  I understood, but it made me think.  It made me realize that certain actions will have consequences.  Some of them might be good, but some of them will be unintended.  And we have no control over them.

Of course, it is wise and good to ask, "Why?" 

But we might not always like the answer.