Sometimes, You’re the Donkey

Sometimes, You’re the Donkey

One thing I really hate is when I don’t get to take a real Sabbath. I need the rest day so badly so that I can conquer another week “from a place of rest.” That’s the way the best book I ever read on pacing your life puts it. Working from rest, not working to get rest. (Read this little book no matter what life stage you are in. So wise and insightful! “Teaching From Rest” by Sarah MacKenzie.) I remember a time when I had to forgo a rest day and couldn’t give those around me a rest day either. And that’s when I learned, sometimes, you’re the donkey. Let me explain.

One way the Lord prepares us is to bring a teaching to our minds right before we need it. And usually on repeat. Sometimes, He’ll remind us of a Bible passage, a parable, a Scripture before we need to lean on it. Other times, it’ll be a song stuck in our head that has just the right lyrics to get us through what’s ahead. And often it’s a real life testimony that someone we respect and trust told us about their walk with God, and how He came through. He goes before us. And I marvel that He prepares us like this because He is a good Father, loving and kind.

Well, the week before a massive household move, I kept thinking about the parable Jesus told in Luke 14:

Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.  And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” And they could not answer Him regarding these things. 

Luke 14:1-6

I was unsure why the Holy Spirit kept reminding me of this seemingly obscure passage, but it came to my mind multiple times a day as I packed and purged leading up to our big moving weekend. We scheduled packers to come Friday, movers to come Saturday, and then church and rest on Sunday.

But the first crew called to cancel an hour before they were due to arrive. Apparently, they put regular gas in their diesel truck. Thankfully, they were all ok (except for a very costly mistake), but I was high and dry. So I scrambled to find another crew the day I needed them in the highest moving season in a military town. Ugh. I found a crew available but not until the next day, Saturday. My father in law and nephew who just had food poisoning flew up to altitude from sea level to help me! Praise God or I would have been a total sobbing puddle. Everyone I could think to reach out to for last minute help was out of town. And I didn’t know how we were going to now pack up and load up in just 4 hours that the new company could squeeze me in.

Amazingly, we got a lot done but they had other jobs booked in advance they were trying to squeeze me in between. So we called it for the day and the only option was for them to come out and work hard again on a Sabbath. I reluctantly said, “Yes, we can call it for today and come back tomorrow.”

(By the way, some sabbath on Saturday, others on Sunday, others Monday. I’m not 100% sure why that is but the point is, rest a full day once a week.)  

Well, that crew got in a car accident on the way to the house to finish on Sabbath morning. I felt awful and have been praying for them. It also meant that my very overworked family who was filling in all the gaps now needed to help me finish the job. I found myself in brief quiet seconds to my thoughts repeating, “Thank you for sending them, Jesus,” and “What would I have done if they didn’t come? Honestly. What would I have done??”

We worked to the bone the entire sabbath. All of us were run ragged and weary by the time we packed and loaded a whole house, goodwilled a trailer full, and offloaded a trailer to the dump too.

And I felt so bad their trip to be moral support for me became their trip to oversea and execute an entire house move! And on a rest day no less.

That’s when I got it…. Sometimes, you’re the donkey.

We miss the heart of sabbath if it’s about rules. Imagine if my family said we can’t help you, it’s rest day and we leave town early Monday morning. That is not the heart of the Father! My generous and never complaining father in law, my hard-working jovial nephew, the sweet high schooler from church, my little girls who hauled and helped more than anyone could imagine little girls can do… they all rallied and we worked together to get us packed up and out of the house in time. THAT is the heart of the Father!

And I was the donkey. So beloved that no one blinked or batted an eye about whether they “should” help me out of the pit I fell into.

Another translation puts it like this…

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a son—or an ox!—that falls into a well. Are you going to tell me you won’t pull him out straight away on the sabbath day?’”

Luke 14:6

Jesus is basically saying, Duh!! You would immediately take care of someone you loved like your daughter or any created thing if they need healing or help! Even if on a Sabbath! And so Jesus healed the man with dropsy right then and there. Right in front of the religious who were concerned with rule-following and had no concern for the hurting, the broken, the widow, or the wounded.

Nobody wants to be the donkey, the ass, the ox (or whatever translation you prefer.) Nobody wants to be the one in the ditch. But Lord has mercy when we do find ourselves in the pit. I’m brought to tears by how humbling it was to BE the donkey and to see God’s heart pour out in mercy for me through His people. The heart of the Father.