All I knew is that I wanted to get
the lawn mowed before I left town to move my daughter into her collage
apartment. I was leaving in two weeks,
and I would be gone for two weeks, since we were driving to Savannah, Georgia. The weeds were already knee high, and it had
to be done!
I pulled out my trusty little crimson
push lawn mower, checked the oil, put in the gas, and put on my foggy goggles, mint
green pollen mask, and mustard yellow leather gloves. I wheeled the lawn mower into that level sweet
spot in the driveway, where I knew I had the best chance of starting the motor. I pushed the primer button three times,
gripped the safety bar to the handle, and yanked hard on the pull string. Nothing.
I pushed the primer button three more times, grabbed close the safety
bar, and quickly drew out the pull string.
Nothing. I repeated the whole
process again, thinking surely by now I was flooding the engine with gas. And still, nothing.
I called Home Depot, where I bought
the lawn mower. I was relieved that the
mower was still under warranty, since I only purchased it eight months
ago. Unfortunately, they would have to
ship my lawn mower away to find out what was wrong with it. I called a repair shop who wanted to charge
me at least $80 just to look at it. They
said the first thing they would do is empty the gas, and put in fresh gas. Then they would check the fuel line to see if
it was clogged. I was thinking that
surely the gas in my garage was fine. I
just used my lawn mower a month ago, with that same gas.
I decided in this day and age, I
could fix the lawn mower faster and cheaper myself by watching you tube videos! I watched you tube videos for hours, making a
plan of action. I read sections of the
user’s manual online, familiarizing myself with all the parts to my lawn mower.
I drove to Home Depot to buy a new
spark plug and a suction kit to drain the gas.
It took me a long time, but I finally found the correct tool in my
garage to remove the old spark plug. I
installed the new spark plug, but I didn’t want to add gas until I finished
checking the other things that could be wrong with it. I was convinced that I needed to take off the
fuel line, to clean it out. I tried
everything to pull it off, but I was unsuccessful. I became more and more frustrated as each day
passed, and as the weeds grew taller.
My husband, who was swamped with
work, even said that I could buy a new lawn mower if I couldn’t get this one to
work. I wasn’t ready to give up. I thought there was one last thing I could
do, but it would require me to get inside the gas pump to clean out some tiny
holes with a little wire, like I saw in the promising you tube videos.
It
was dark outside at the end of the day when I went out to the garage. After lifting the lawn mower onto some blocks
of wood, I realized that I would have to literally turn the mower upside down
to unscrew the motor from the base. That
is where I drew the line. I had worked
on my mower for four days, and I was getting nowhere!
On the fifth day I decided to drive
to the gas station to buy new gas. I
thought I would try one last time to engage my lawn mower before I bought a new
one. I was scared that the mower would
just blow up since I tinkered with it for so long, not really knowing what I
was doing. I set up the fire
extinguisher nearby, just in case.
I pressed the primer button three
times, squeezed the safety bar shut, and pulled the draw string with all my
might. I was shocked when the engine
roared to life! All it needed was fresh
gas! I was praising God! What makes gas go bad anyway? I didn’t care, my lawn mower was
working! Halleluia!
Immediately, I was struck with the
thought that the Holy Spirit is like fresh gas.
Just like my lawn mower needed fresh gas to run properly, I need God’s
Holy Spirit to live my life the way God intended me to live it. “…you will receive power when the holy Spirit
comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
