I bought two new calendars for my office…. One has pictures of very happy, cute Australian Blue Heelers. They are awesome dogs! We have one, and she’s a bit crazy, but she’s lots of fun, and she loves us to death! (She also leaves gobs of her hair, EVERYWHERE!)
The other calendar I bought has pictures of beautifully restored pickup trucks. The February picture is of a 1949 Chevy Thriftmaster ½ ton truck. It’s a beautiful truck… actually, it’s too pretty. It’s been restored so nicely that it’s prettier than when it came off the Chevrolet assembly line. It’s certainly never going to be used to haul grain, feed cattle, carry wood. or bring hay bales in from the field, ever again. It most likely won’t ever be anywhere near a dirt road again! It will almost certainly never do any “truck stuff” again. When you look at that gorgeous vehicle, you just have to ask, “is it still really a truck?”
I love looking at beautifully restored vehicles, especially trucks. But you think about their past…. The car that used to haul a family on vacation, to the grocery store, to Grandma’s house, and to Church. Now it’s an ornament. Or that beautifully restored 1949 Chevy pickup, that was used in the dirt and the mud, making some farmer or tradesman’s life easier. It carried materials, it carried tools, it carried someone to the “job site” so they could work. It got dinged and scratched, the paint faded and crackled. It carried heavy loads. It did stuff! Now it’s a pretty thing to put in car shows or go out for coffee on a Saturday.
These cars and trucks are fun to look at, but they aren’t very useful. They could be, but who’s going to risk their $5,000 paint job driving their old truck in the desert? Who’s going to go get groceries in the old model A Ford that they turned into a 2 seater chopped top and put in a 400 motor, with the Holley 4 barrel carb? You’ll get there quick, but you won’t have space to haul your groceries home. Besides, if you drive it every day you won’t have grocery money because your hot rod will suck it all up in fuel and tires.
There are lots of cars and trucks on the road that are used every day. Vehicles that fulfill a purpose. They get care and maintenance, but not like the show cars. They don’t usually get new paint, or have their engines and transmissions replaced. They have dings, and the upholstery isn’t new. No one has gone out of their way to make them fabulous. They just keep, doing what they were meant to do; taking people places, hauling cargo, getting the job done.
As Christians, we shouldn’t expect God to “retire” us and then slick us all up pretty and put in “Christian shows.” We are here to be used by God, not put on display in a garage.
Philippians 1:21–26 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.
As long as we live, do what you were put here by God to do! Retirement finally begins when “my eyes close in death!” “Burn out! Don’t rust out!”
John
