Happy Retro Day! I hope this devo helps you remember to rely on God for everything. Just imagine all the things He can accomplish through you! Enjoy! ~ Halee

by RTF Staff Writer Jamin Goecker

I yanked the starter on my lawnmower. The engine popped, my shoulder ached, but no life sparked within the mower. In the Texas sun, I tried everything I could to make the stubborn machine operational. Nothing worked.

Several months before, I’d been enflamed to attend a mission trip. I refused to ask people for money and opted to earn what I needed. I figured I couldn’t experience the benefits of a mission trip if I didn’t take the responsibility of paying for it. But the price tag was daunting for a guy with just a mower and weed eater; $800 plus airline tickets.

Of all the things I couldn’t afford, it was for my lawnmower to break down.

Sweat stung my eyes and my hands reeked of mower fumes as I pushed the invalid mower towards home.

I want to quit. I should just forget I ever heard about the mission trip..

I brought the mower to a halt. Have I been trying to do this without God’s help?

Yes, I had been, and this is where it got me.

The asphalt burned my knees as I knelt in the road. “God, if you want me to go on this thing, then you provide a way. I can’t do it by myself.”

I stood and pushed the broken mower the rest of the way home. For a few days I couldn’t do anything. The lawnmower couldn’t be repaired, and I couldn’t afford a new one.

An acquaintance approached me one day and offered me her old mower. I accepted like a man would take a parachute before jumping out of a plane.

I’ll never forget the summer I tried doing something without God’s help and He reminded me that, “‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27, NIV.

Jamin Goecker is an avid writer and enjoys playing Frisbee, playing guitar, hiking, hunting, and just about anything related to the outdoors. Contact him on Facebook or at his blog (scribe-jamin.blogspot.com).