He took my place

By Jeff Becraft

 

(Another story involving Black Mountain for Children… names have been changed for privacy sake.)

Last year, I was speaking at a weekend camp with Black Mountain Home, and as part of that camp, we do a morning work project. We get to volunteer for which work project we want to be on and I volunteered for the one of fixing the path on the downside of the property and putting railroad ties on the edges of that path. I figured that would mean everything would be happening in one location. My sugar levels (type I diabetic) were really out of whack that morning and I thought this would be the best scenario if I was in one area.

Little did I know that when we showed up for our task, we had to get wheelbarrows and go up to the top of the hill, fill them with gravel, and then wheel that gravel down to the lower part of the property and dump it to build up the path.

Once I got the first wheelbarrow full of gravel and I started heading down the hill… this is tougher than it sounds (this is in the mountains)… I began to wonder, “What have I gotten myself into?”

Now, back in the day, when I was a young buck, I used to work as a laborer for a construction company and so there were times of pushing wheelbarrows full of concrete.

But this was not back in the day.

After we dump the first load, most of us are asked to go back up the hill and get another load. Not sure what I was thinking, but I said OK. (Later that night, when I was speaking, I gave the person in charge of our project a really hard time in front of all the group. One of the guy’s names was Sean, and Sean is a strapping 18 year old. I told everyone, “Look at Sean. Okay. Now look at me. All right. Now look back at Sean. Okay. Now, look at me. Now… I ask you… if you were going to send someone up to the top of the hill to get a wheelbarrow of gravel and you were going to have another person stay at the bottom, who would you pick?”)

Heading out for my second load, my sugar level began to drop pretty dramatically. So, on the way I stop by the restrooms and I am sitting on a bench outside and I begin eating things that are high carbohydrate and taking in glucose tablets. At one point, a girl and a female staff come by carrying a ladder. I said, “Well, what’s going on here? Two dangerous women out in the middle of nowhere carrying a ladder…”) The woman staff responded, “Big things, Becraft, big things,” (which deserves a Friday email all by itself).

One of the guys that was on the wheelbarrow crew was coming down the road with his second load of gravel and he sees me sitting on the bench. And of course, he asked me what I was doing. I said, “Well… my sugar level is low. I’m trying to get it back up.”

He says to me, “Well, how about if I take your wheelbarrow up the hill and fill it up for you. Here’s my wheelbarrow. I’m on my way back down to dump it, and so you can just take mine from here and go dump it on the path which is only a short distance from here.”

I responded, “If you would do that, we will name our next child after you,” (an expression I picked up from a friend). And so, Joshua takes my wheelbarrow, and Joshua walks the hill, and Joshua fills up my wheelbarrow with gravel, and Joshua bears my burden, and comes back and dumps it on the path.

Joshua took my place. He walked the hill for me.

And I was extremely thankful.

 

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at  [email protected].