The Other Carpenter in My Life

When the suffering comes, "I Will Be Lee, Will You Be Lee?" Our suffering here on earth prior to the rapture of the bride will be a test of our worthiness to enter the Kingdom. Amen


When we speak of “Carpenters”, we think of Jesus, but tonight I want to introduce to you the “Other Carpenter” in my life; one that I knew personally on earth.

His name was “Lee”. He was the nearest thing I have ever known to being the “Good Samaritan” Jesus described in Luke’s Gospel. My first inkling of this was in 1931, the middle of the great depression, when Lee was just 32 years old. A flash flood hit Oklahoma City in the early morning hours. Near Lee’s house a creek called “Lightening Creek”, named for its fast rising reputation, severely flooded before anyone sounded the alarm, and it swept an entire motel downstream before occupants could escape. The motel was filled with families whose father’s had come to Oklahoma City seeking work of any kind to feed their families. Many whole families drowned that night.

I don’t remember the exact death toll, but it was substantial. What I do remember is that at day-light, Lee fearing the worst, got up and rushed the few blocks to investigate. What he found was devastation everywhere. Survivors were wondering around in search for their missing loved ones. Lee found a father and a son about 10 years old searching for the mother and the other four children. They were not found that day….they were never found alive. Lee had hardships of his own as everyone did in that depression. He had his own problems finding carpenter jobs that were few and far between. For his own family he could only afford a three room rented house where all four members slept in the only bedroom. Nevertheless he took in this stranger and his son, and he shared what his family had for the next three months until the man and boy could move out on their own.

 The flood was a very unusual event, but Lee helping others was not. To him, it was an everyday occurrence. It was like breathing, or shaking hands,…or saying hello. It was nothing big or unusual; it was what you were supposed to do without a second thought. If someone was stranded beside the road, he stopped to help. If he happened to hear of a family living in a drafty unheated house, he made contact and used his carpenter skills to close out the cold then he would search for a used stove and wood or coal to give them heat. He never passed a bum on the street without doing something. He would share a little money, or offer them a lift, or do something to give them encouragement or improve their day. Helping was a natural part of his daily routine. He never thought of it as anything special; nor did he talk about it afterwards.

Unless you were there when it happened, you would never know about it from him.

Lee spent his life this way. At 75 he was still in construction and still helping others. I made a surprise visit to a Phillips 66 service station he was building on old US 66 in Oklahoma City. When I arrived work on the station was going along as usual, but he wasn’t doing it. Instead, he was leaning over the hood of an old car with a young sailor who had been transferred from the west to the east coast. The sailor’s young wife was in the car, parked under the station’s canapé’ out of the summer heat. Lee had spotted them broken down on his way to work, toed them to the station, took the sailor to buy parts, and lent his tools to put on a new fuel pump. Lee managed to supervise the work on the station, greeted me, and all the while he continued to watch over the sailor’s needs until this little young family was back on the road again. Throughout he was completely unaware he was doing anything everybody wouldn’t do.

Like Jesus, “Lee” had humble surroundings all of his life. He never held a position above construction foreman. He never saved much money. He never owned an expensive car. He never owned more than an acre of land. He never lived in a house with over 1000 sqft. He never had a house with more than two bed rooms nor one with central air conditioning. But he was a good man, and tonight Lee stands in heaven with the Master Carpenter. I am sure Jesus looked back over all of the people he had helped day by day by day during his 80 years on earth. And, I don’t believe Jesus had to ask him….”What did you do for the least of mine?” Jesus knew Lee had done whatever he could…every day. Lee was truly the Good Samaritan, in real life.

This was the “Other Carpenter” in my life. He was my father. I learned much from him, and by example he set standards and goals I have had to reach for all of my life. I know tonight that when my time comes to stand before the Master Carpenter, as he already has, I will have more to offer than I would had I not known Lee. Everyone can’t have a Lee for inspiration in their life, but if you don’t, I hope you will share him and his story with me. He was a big man, big enough to be shared by others. If Lee can be an inspiration to you, I think he would be pleased, and I would be pleased as well.”

This was written in 2002 by my dad Robert Lindauer, Jr. about his dad my beloved grandfather Robert Sr. and it says as much about my dad as it does about my grandfather. Both Godly men that any boy would be honored to have as theirs. 

Now that, precious people is the stock I come from. And I’m ashamed to say the two most important earthly men in my life where not enough to keep me from nearly losing my salvation. It took humbling myself before the Holy Lord Jesus Christ and truly repenting of all my sins to save me.