The speedometer of my scooter is broken. I’m not exactly sure what happened. One day it was working, and the next day it wasn’t. Using my brilliant mechanical skills, I stared intently at the front wheel assembly where I’m convinced the speedometer connection is. Nothing happened. It’s still broken. I’ve continued to ride my scooter, using my tachometer and the speed of neighboring cars to tell me about what speed I’m going. The only problem is I’m using the wrong tool for the wrong job. We all do it, don’t we? We’re too lazy to go get the screwdriver from the garage, so we pull out a kitchen knife to tighten or remove a screw. Sometimes we end up twisting so hard, we cause damage to the end of the knife…Gee honey, it looks like the garbage disposal got another knife…**shake head sadly**. We use any large heavy item we can find as a hammer… the heel of a shoe, the handle of a knife (the garbage disposal gets blamed again), a rock, a book, a bottle, the handset of a phone, and sometimes even our hands (although after the third or fourth time getting stitches we learn that’s not the best choice). Instead of using a ladder we will stand precariously on an unstable chair, or climb on a table, or a stool, or one of our children. We won’t reach across the kitchen for a pot holder, instead we will try a dish towel, or a wad of paper towels, or just bare hand it (what’s 375 degrees for 30 seconds?). We grab an old stick instead of a paint stirrer, and wonder why there’re pieces of bark in the paint. We don’t want to get a wash cloth to clean our child’s face, so we lick our fingers and smear the dirt around with a little saliva. No napkin? That’s what socks are for!
We all tend to do it at one time or another. We expect something to do a job it wasn’t meant to do. We can do it in our faith journey also. We get busy with work, or play, or to-do lists, and we forget to spend any time in prayer or personal Bible study. So we shoot a 5-second prayer up at heaven in between things, and we expect it to be good enough. We are supposed to love and forgive others, but we figure as long as we can cut them out of our lives so we never have to deal with them again, we’re good to go. We are supposed to share our faith, but we hope that living a “Christian life” will be sufficient for those heathens (I mean) neighbors near us to be convicted of their sin and seek God’s grace found in Jesus Christ. We are supposed to help for the poor, so rather than throw away that swelling can of kippered herring in mustard, we take it to church for the food pantry and feel we’ve done our part for the suffering of the world. Like Tiny Tim, we cry out, “God bless us, everyone!”
James 2:22 says But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. Jesus told us that following and living His teachings was like building our house with a solid foundation rather than a weak one. I don’t think we will ever stop trying to take shortcuts when it comes to the mundane parts of our lives. Knives will always double as screwdrivers, and dish towels as hot pads, but shouldn’t we give God more than the least we can do? Let us choose to live our faith in word and deed. Do me a favor though; don’t explain to Cindy how the BBQ stain got on my socks. Thanks!
Chad