By: Pastor David Grousnick

A man borrowed a book from an acquaintance. As he read through it, he was intrigued to find parts of the book underlined with the letters YBH written in the margin. When he returned the book to the owner, he asked what the YBH meant.

The owner replied that the underlined paragraphs were sections of the book that he basically agreed with. They gave him hints on how to improve himself and pointed out truths that he wished to incorporate into his life.

However, the letters YBH stood for “Yes, but how?”

Those three letters could be written on the margins of our souls!

“I ought to know how to take better care of myself, but how?”

“I know I ought to spend more time in scripture reading and prayer, but how?”

“I know I ought to be more sensitive to others, more loving of my spouse, more understanding of the weaknesses of others, but how?”

These are all good qualities and we know that, but how can we acquire them? As Christian people we know the kind of life we ought to live, and most of us have the best of intentions to do so, but how?

We are afraid because we know where the road paved with only good intentions leads!

Read Jesus’ parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:1-9, telling us to repent and bear good fruit. We know what the Christian life requires of us and yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we also know how far short we fall.

So, the question that confronts us is: “Yes, but how?”

It’s a dilemma that has confronted God’s people throughout the ages. Even Saint Paul found himself trapped.

In Romans 7 Paul writes: It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God’s will so far as my new (redeemed Christian) nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind, I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself enslaved to sin….

So, what are we to do? I would suggest that you give self-examination some consideration.

It seems that once the University of Tennessee coach bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. He took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, “I’m sorry, coach, there just isn’t enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you.”

The coach was disappointed, but he threw the bolt of cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it.

A couple of weeks later he was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama – the home of the Crimson Tide – arch enemies of the Vols. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation.

Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, and he remembered that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. He stopped, thinking he would give it a try. He told the tailor he had bought this bolt of cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured him, measured the bolt of cloth, did some computations.

Finally, he said, “Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What’s more, I can make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this, too.”

The coach was dumbfounded.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “My tailor in Knoxville told me he couldn’t even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth.”

The tailor said, “Coach, here in Tuscaloosa, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Knoxville.”

I share this story to make the point that things are not always what they seem. The parable of the fig tree is clearly a parable of judgment. But at the very heart of it is a marvelous word of grace.

Garrison Keillor warns us, “You can become a Christian by going to church just as about easily as you can become an automobile by sleeping in a garage.” What we’re speaking of is the danger of presumed spiritual security.

Our parable says that we’re not called just to be here. It is a clear warning against a fruitless existence in the light of God’s grace given to us.

The season of Lent is about looking in, not out!

Have a great weekend!

David Grousnick, is the Pastor at the First Christian Church in Artesia.