Every once in a while I will see a push lawn mower, which reminds me of my late father.

Not a gas-powered lawn mower, or a fancy one you drive around on, but the one powered by the human body, the kind that you can see the cut grass flying into a catcher, the ones that brought calluses to the inside of your hand and sweat streaming out of your body.

I recall all the lawns my dad push-mowed as part of his job. That was a lot of square footage.

One twilight evening, he had the mower parked out on our tall grassy yard. Being all of 5 years old, I asked him, "Dad, let me mow the lawn. I can do it."

"OK, you can try," was his reply.

I put my hands to the mower and began to push ... and push ... and push. Something was the matter — the mower did not budge. It was as if it were Superglued to the ground. I backed off from the mower and ran toward it, grasping the handles I pushed once more, with the same result. Despite all my efforts, I was getting nowhere.

Suddenly, the mower began to move forward. I thought to myself, "There must have been some rock stuck in the blade that kept me from moving."

But then I saw the strong, calloused hands of my dad placed just above my little hands. I turned around to see his smiling face as he helped me mow the lawn. He enabled me to accomplish something that in my own strength I could not.

This event from my life reminds me of what God has done for us. There is absolutely nothing we can do in our own power and wisdom that would make us worthy to experience eternal life with God. We can be pushing our spiritual lawn mower to try to cut a path to God and get nowhere. But when we cry out to Jesus Christ, when we place our faith in the one with the nail-scarred hands, the one who gave his life for us, then we can be assured of having eternal life.

When you look at the reality of it all, of how we have eternal life with God, it's all about him. Christ also died for sins for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God.

As I navigate through life, I recognize my need for help. I raise my voice to Jesus to place my faith in him and rely on him to get me home.

Dennis Mendoza is the pastor of spiritual life development at International Baptist Church.