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Maintenance required
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Posted by admin Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:19:45 PST
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0 responses 0 comments I drive a big, square GMC van back and forth to the office, much like the ones soccer moms use to deliver kids to and from practice.

No one notices the church van much except hitchhikers.  It does have dents in it from loaning it out to people when they need help or don’t want to use their own car. The windshield has a big starburst from a rock that flew up from the road.

After being loaned out a few weeks ago, the van came back with the driver’s-side mirror duct taped on due to the mirror having a run-in with a concrete parking garage pillar and losing.

No big deal.

This past week, we loaned our personal vehicle to a young man who wanted to drive to the snow. He brought it back looking like it had been entered it in a demolition derby and won. When all totaled up, there was just over $11,000 in damages and missing parts.

Again, no biggie, its just a truck. The good news is that no one was hurt.

The other day, I was driving down the road in my wife’s smashed up truck when all of a sudden the “maintenance required” light went on.

I started laughing out loud.

Toyota made their trucks not only tough but smart too. My wife’s truck knows it’s got problems. I am sure the truck doesn’t have a clue as to the full extent of the trouble. Nonetheless, the truck knew something was wrong and was smart enough to reach out for help.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the truck is smarter than many people.

The truck’s maintenance light goes off automatically every few thousand miles to tell me it needs a checkup and service.

When was the last time you sat with the Lord or someone older, wiser, and with more experience than you for a checkup?

You see, friend, we all need checkups but most of us are too proud to get them. The same reason we hate going to doctors is the same reason we don’t want a spiritual physical. We don’t want people sticking their nose into our business.

Our problem is pride, yet my truck can’t be proud. My truck is not wired for pride, instead it is specifically wired to say it has a problem.

Oh, how I wish you and I had lights go off when there is a problem, but we don’t.

It’s up to each of us to humble ourselves before God and before one another and to reach out for help. We are all works in progress and God knows maintenance is required in our lives. That is why the Bible tells us we need desperately to remain in fellowship with God and within the body of Christ. God knows we all need help, and God has chosen church as His primary garage as it were for “service.”

Proverbs 12:15 makes clear that “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.”

Let me encourage you today, loved one, to not turn inward but rather turn upward to God and outward to your brothers and sisters in Christ. Do so when you need help, and even before your light goes off per say.

Remember the words of James 4:6 the next time you sense the maintenance required light going off in your life and you feel like going it alone, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Go for grace, beloved, pull in for a “service” and simply let the Lord love you and allow those around you to love you, too.

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