Faith and Works

This is really very hypocritical. I am always a little disappointed when I check the kid's blogs and there is nothing new for several weeks, or in the case of Jason and Sarah, who now exclusively use Face Book, that there is nothing new at all, ever. Then I look at my own blog and realize how long I've neglected it, and I have no room to criticize. So, here goes...
I had an experience several months ago, and I think the Lord was, once again, trying to get me to understand the relationship between faith and works. I have a project going on out in Hesperia installing a bus wash system for Victor Valley Transit. When we had gotten a particular piece of equipment erected we noticed that the connections to the air cylinders were the wrong type and that the cylinders had to be replaced with the correct ones. Rather than bring the entire crew back to the job I chose to replace them myself, so I loaded my 25' extension ladder and drove the 1 1/2 hour trip to Hesperia.
To remove the cylinders I had to climb my ladder about 16'up. This is not an A-frame ladder, so I have to lean it against whatever I'm working on. All I had was the brush frame, which really wasn't a very stable support that high up. There were 4 cylinders, each on its own frame. The first two came off relatively easy. The third wouldn't budge, so I went to the last one and took it off, then returned to the stubborn one. By this time I was fairly tired because when I say the first three came off easily, that's a relative statement. It was work and I was sweating pretty profusely by this time.
I just could not budge the nut off the bolt. I had ratchets with me, but it turned out the bolt head and nut were 1 1/8", and the largest socket I had was 1", so I had to use a pair of adjustable wrenches. I worked at this for at least a half an hour with no success. I got some initial movement, but it froze up. I kept second-guessing myself and wondered if I was inadvertently tightening the nut. But, "righty tighty, lefty loosey", so I was doing it right, but it just wasn't budging.
I finally decided I had only two options; I could go home and get the large socket and a torque wrench - and this would mean a 3 hour round trip, and it was already close to noon, or I could ask the Lord for help.
To be honest, I felt a little foolish asking Him for help on something that in the eternal scheme of things probably just wasn't that important. But it was important to me, so I reasoned he would give the requested help. So perched on top of my ladder I offered a prayer and explained what my situation was, what my options were and asked if He might not help me out. I was left with a distinct impression that it could be done, but not without a real effort and different approach. Kyle and I had been having numerous discussions about the relationship between faith and works and how our best efforts are required. I was about to get a real object lesson on this.
I was impressed to shift my position and extend my left leg out to push against the wall, leaving my right leg on the ladder, and to hold the main frame in a hooking position with my left arm, pushing my self away from my work an arm's length to push the other wrench with my right hand while pulling with my left arm. I had the wrench holding the nut braced against part of the frame so I didn't need my left hand for that one.
This was NOT a safe position. Any slip or sudden move of the ladder and I could fall to the concrete floor. But it allowed me to use my leg and upper body strength and put my weight into the push on the wrench. The result was that by pushing with my entire upper body and leg I was able to turn the bolt 1/6 of a turn. Each time I repeated this I was able to move the bolt the same distance. Now, since these bolts are hexagonal it took 6 pushes to turn the bolt one complete turn - and the nut was almost an inch thick, with about 1/2" of bolt extending through the bottom. It was an aircraft nut, which means it has a ring of plastic - nylon I think - built into the bottom, which keeps the nut from working loose. I thought to myself, "As soon as I clear the bolt from the plastic ring it will be easy to get it off". As near as I could tell I had about 15 to 20 full turns to remove the nut completely, but maybe 6 or 8 to clear the plastic ring.
Well, it didn't work out that way. Even after I cleared the nylon ring the bolt was as a stubborn as ever. I figured it must be cross-threaded to be this difficult. But I was making progress, however slowly, and I didn't want to quit and have to come back again. After about 10 minutes I was drenched in sweat, my legs and arms were shaking, and I didn't feel much closer to getting it off. I found that if I stopped and rested every couple of minutes for about a minute I was able to get back to it.
I think it was about a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes before I got the nut off. I checked it out and found there was no cross-threading. I took the bolt out and hand threaded the nut all the way in, then hand turned it all the way out, including past the nylon ring. It was no problem. About 5 minutes later I had the new cylinder on and was putting away my tools and tying the ladder to the truck bed.
I thought about this to try to learn the lesson the Lord was obviously trying to teach me. What I decided was: He does listen to, and answers even the simple, mundane requests when sincerely offered. Second, never expect the Lord to do something for us we can do for ourselves. Third, even when He shows us the way to do it, don't expect Him to make it easy for us. He typically gives us just enough strength to get it done, but will not do it for us. He wants children of character and faith, which means that we must continue with our every effort to do what needs to be done, even when it appears that things are not working the way we expect, and have faith to accomplish it.