Last week I was looking for some background television to put on while making dinner. I wanted something that didn’t have a big plot and didn’t require my full attention. Because, I was making dinner and needed some attention for that.
We have a Disney+ subscription, so I scrolled through options. One show grabbed my fancy. It was called “The Last Repair Shop.” A quick scan of the little description said it was about the people who repair instruments for one of America’s biggest school districts.
Now I’m a fan of shows that involve mechanical craft. I love watching Forged in Fire (knife making) and really got into the UK’s “Repair Shop” (antiques). There is something that speaks to me about people who can make or fix beautiful things.
Yes, I assumed that this would be a show about crazy mangled instruments that the craftspeople would have to restore to musical functionality. Both of my daughters played instruments in school, so I could imagine that the repair people had some really interesting cases to address…
I was wrong.
Pretty quickly I learned that this was a show about the stories of the people who worked for Los Angeles Unified School District in their musical repair shop. Stories about the people not the instruments.
The show was uplifting about the power of music to change lives. One of the repair techs really grabbed my attention. It was about a woman who came to the states from Mexico but didn’t have a real career path. She talked about working in musical instrument stores – it was something that really connected for her. When her kids said they wanted to play instruments in school, she didn’t know how she would afford the monthly instrument rental.
At the same time, she was told about a job repairing instruments. She went through the process, and made it to the final step, which was demonstrating her skills. She was up against almost a dozen other men. So she assumed she wouldn’t get any consideration…
When she got the call saying that she got the job, she was clearly emotional, remembering the moment. Her exact words to the camera were, “you have no idea how it felt.”
Someone who thought she had little or nothing to offer, who assumed that others were more qualified than she was. Who needed the job so that her kids could learn to play the clarinet.
It was powerful. I actually rewound the show and watched her story again, with tears threatening my eyes.
You have no idea how it felt…
It’s a story of hope and salvation. One of being in great need, and suddenly, unexpectedly having that need met. It was heartwarming.
Very quickly after hearing her say that, I began to think about my life as a Christian. It wasn’t that different from hers, in a spiritual sense.
A sinner condemned by God’s perfect justice. No amount of work or good deeds I could do could make up the gap. I had nothing to offer God and nothing I could do to ask Him for an exception.
But God sent Jesus to bridge the gap and stand in my place and take my punishment. In return I got everything I could ever want but never afford. All for the seemingly insufficient act of faith.
That story on the show really drove me back to think about how every Christian story is one of “You have no idea how it felt…”
Can you relate?
Can you connect your journey of faith to the statement “you have no idea how it felt”?
Is your life in Christ one that you never dreamed you could have? Is your hope in the future sustaining in a way you never dreamed it would be possible?
Odds are if you don’t stop and remember, you’ll lose the connection to that feeling. That’s why its important that we as believers become reminiscent people. We need to feel what it was like to be lost then found, damned then redeemed, hopeless then hopeful.
So my challenge to you this week is to set aside some time to ponder this. Reconnect to that moment when the weight of your sin and rebellion was lifted off your shoulders and placed on the cross.
It will change your life. Just like this woman’s life was changed by getting the dream job.
You will probably find it easier to be more grateful and generous and loving. That’s just a guess on my part, but an educated one.
It’s how I felt.
If you get a chance to watch the show, it’s worth the hour or so that you’ll invest. And when her story comes on, you’ll feel something. Hopefully something that will fuel your own “you have no idea how it felt” moment.
Until next time,
Dennis
