when's the last time you had a check up?

In our SOAP reading this week, Ephesians 5:15-17, stood out to me.  In the MESSAGE BIBLE it reads:

"Watch your step.  Use your head.  Make the most of every chance you get.  These are desperate times! Don't live carelessly, unthinkingly.  Make sure you understand what the Master wants."

Eugene Peterson, who authored the MESSAGE interpretation of the Bible, writes in his notes on this passage:

I once had an automobile that began to develop all kinds of strange noises.  It became more and more difficult to start, and sometimes I would have to ask a friend to give me a push.  Clouds of black smoke belched from the exhaust.  And the motor sounded terrible

 

In spite of this evidence that something wasn’t quite right, I delayed taking the car to a mechanic. Why?  I know I would have to have it repaired, and once one thing was repaired, the whole thing would have to be repaired…and that would cost me a lot of money.  Meanwhile, it was still getting me where I wanted to go.  So I ignored the problem.  I refused to tamper with anything for fear that I’d have to overhaul everything.  You can guess the result.  There came a day when the car wouldn’t run.  So much was wrong that it wasn’t worth fixing, and I had to junk it.

 

I thought of that car when I read Paul’s sentence, “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly.”  Which is how I sometimes live, neglecting not only my car but my life.  Why do I resist self-examination?  A big reason is that I fear if I look too closely at my life, I’ll see too much that has to be done, and I don’t want to take the trouble or pay the price to fix it.  Meanwhile, I’m functioning.  I’m getting on OK.

 

But Paul knew something we don’t: that the life we’re examining is essentially good.  That our existence is God’s creation.  That no matter how many things our examination turns up, scrapping the life within us isn’t an option.  God created this life, He has entered into it, He has provided the means for saving it, and He is redeeming it. 

 

And that’s where the car analogy breaks down.  Many cars aren’t worth repairing and some are impossible to repair.  But there’s no life that isn’t worth repairing, no life that is impossible to redeem.

 

This means that I can pay close attention to my life without anxiety or apprehension.  It doesn’t make any difference if I turn up a lot of broken stuff.  God is ready to deal with all of them, item by item, in love and grace.

Comments

[Nancy]

Thanks for the great reminder.

[Gayle Trowbridge]

This is so right on. Why don't I want to repair those things that require alot of work?? If God is ready to deal with them, I should be too. Thanks for the reminder.