Recently, I was wandering around in the hills near my house trying to get some exercise when I stumbled upon a sight that inspired me to think about my role a member of the restored church. It was a sight I had seen many times before because of the massive excavation and development that was taking place near my house. A developer is literally moving mountains in order to create space wherein he can build 465 homes. I have been watching hundreds of coordinated machines swarm like ants to cut down terrain, move the terrain, and build up terrain in other places. It has been a sight to see.
But on this day, there were only two isolated machines moving dirt in front of me as I passed on by. One of them was a bulldozer and the other was a massive tractor-earth scraper. Compared to this earth scraper the bulldozer was tiny. It was small and simple relative to the scraper.
[envira-gallery id=”6102″]As I looked up, I noticed that the bulldozer had come up behind the earth scraper and began to push it. I was wondering why in the world such a big machine would need assistance from such a little tractor. I kept thinking to myself that there was no way that little dozer could push that enormous earth scraper, but sure enough, the dozer was moving the scraper forward. I found out later that this is a common occurrence. It’s called “push loading.” It happens when the earth scraper gets bogged down or when it encounters challenging terrain. When this happens, the scraper signals for help and the bulldozer is off to the rescue. In some cases, two dozers will come over to help the big earth scraper get through the terrain and over the hill. It’s called “tandem push loading.”
Standing there observing these machines at work, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “How many of these proverbial earth scrapers are there out there that are waiting for someone to come and help them through the rough terrain of life. How many of them just need a little push to help them get over life’s hills?”
At that moment, the thought came into my mind… “I want to be that be that bulldozer.” Small and simple as we might be. Insignificant as we might assume we are. All we’ve got to do it is find someone to help through rough terrain. The dozer helped the earth scraper over the hill as it collected its dirt, and the two parted ways… but at the end of the day, they performed what the ancients might consider a modern miracle. They moved a mountain. And the only way for these machines to “move mountains” was to do it together.
One of the most impactful things I’ve ever heard come out of a person’s mouth was this: “I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him.” Well… the Lord asked him for quite a few errands over the last 50 plus years and he delivered on his commitment. He got behind people and gave them the push they needed to help them accomplish their goals. President Monson was a gospel bulldozer… and I want to be a gospel bulldozer too. 🙂
