The Half I Did Was The Easy Half

It stopped in exactly the right place.

That is the part worth noticing before anything else, because it looks like a random stopping point and it is not.

Everything up to there was the work you knew how to do. Measuring, clearing, the straightforward runs, the parts where a mistake costs you ten minutes and nothing else. All of that got done, and it got done well.

And then the next thing is the awkward corner, or the part where two things have to line up, or the bit where getting it wrong means starting that section over.

So the job did not stop because you ran out of enthusiasm. It stopped at a boundary, and the boundary is real, and it is exactly where everybody stops.

And what is on the other side of it is not really difficulty. Difficulty on its own is manageable. What is on the other side is difficulty with nobody else there, which is a completely different proposition.

You are a man walking into a harder stretch with somebody, and stopping where the work got difficult has never once been a failure of nerve.

He it is that doth go with thee

There is an instruction in Deuteronomy given to people facing something genuinely hard, and the ground it stands on is not what people remember.

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. (Deuteronomy 31:6, King James Version)

He it is that doth go with thee.

Notice what the courage is resting on. It is not resting on the thing being easier than it looks. It is not resting on a promise about the outcome. It is resting entirely on company.

And the word is go with. Alongside. Not sending, not watching, not waiting at the other end. Going with, which is a word about position during the hard part.

You have somebody going with you into the difficult stretch, and the courage in that verse has never once rested on the work being easier than it looks. Deuteronomy 31:6 puts the whole weight on the going with, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes that a present tense fact in a garage.

And look at the two negatives at the end. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Fail there carries the sense of letting go, of slackening. Forsake is leaving. So the two things being ruled out are the two ways a person ends up alone in the middle of something.

You were never going to be let go of halfway through, and the two things that verse rules out have never once been things a man had to prevent by himself. The Spirit of God is the one who does not slacken and does not leave, and the written word names both of those specifically rather than in general.

Difficulty and aloneness are two different problems

So here is the practical claim, and separating these two is most of the help available.

Difficulty is a matter of skill and time and patience. It is manageable. Most men will attempt something difficult without much trouble.

Aloneness in difficulty is a different thing. It is difficulty plus nobody to say that looks about right, plus nobody to hold the other end, plus nobody who will know if it goes badly except you.

You are facing two problems that have been sitting on top of each other, and the hard half has never once been hard in only one way. Deuteronomy 31:6 answers the company problem directly and says nothing at all about the size of the task, and the Holy Spirit is the one who separates the two for a man standing in a doorway.

And here is what that means practically, which is the useful part.

Some of the aloneness is answerable by another person. Not somebody to do it with. Somebody who knows the garage light is on.

Telling one person that you are going out to the garage for twenty minutes changes almost nothing about the work and changes a surprising amount about the stretch.

You have one person who can be told where you are tonight, and being known to be out there has never once required anybody to come and help. The Spirit of God is the one who goes with a man into the corner, and Deuteronomy 31:6 rests the whole instruction on presence rather than on ability.

And one more, because this row is about a real boundary and not a moral one.

You were never short of courage at that boundary, and stopping where a job got harder has never once been the same as refusing it. Deuteronomy 31:6 tells people to be strong and then immediately explains what the strength is resting on, and the Holy Spirit is the one who supplies that rather than expecting a man to generate it.

Ten minutes into the hard half, and tell one person

Here is the assignment and it has two parts and the second one is easy to skip.

Do the first ten minutes of the hard half tonight.

Not the whole corner. Not the part where two things line up. The first ten minutes of it, which is usually setting up for the difficult bit rather than the difficult bit itself.

You have ten minutes on the other side of that boundary tonight, and stepping past where you stopped has never once obliged you to get through the whole of it. Deuteronomy 31:6 speaks about going with somebody through a stretch, and the Holy Spirit is the one out there for the whole ten minutes.

And here is the second part. Tell one person you are going to be out there.

Your wife, a friend, a text message to your brother. I am going to be in the garage for twenty minutes. That is the whole message.

They do not have to reply. They do not have to come. They do not have to ask about it afterward. What changes is that the stretch is no longer entirely unwitnessed, and unwitnessed is most of what makes it heavy.

Then do the ten and come in. Do not push on into the difficult part because you feel brave. Ten minutes on the far side of the boundary is the whole of what this evening is for.