Devotion for February 10, 2016
09/02/16 22:31
Greetings!!
Use to be I would drive about 1000+ miles each month. I pretty much lived in my car and as a result there was little time remaining to clean it. Now ‘living’ in your car implies all of those things that ‘living’ entails such as eating and storing things and changes of clothes and - you get it - need to live type things.
After a while of ‘living’ in your car there comes to be less and less space for people as all those things that have accumulated while you are driving for the work you do. Plus there is all of those eating in your car crumbs and shoe dirt and tracked in leaves and dust and such...
Having moved to a new location the amount of driving that I have to do has drastically been reduced - drastically. Now, if I drive 50 miles a month for my work it is a traveled month so you would think that the amount of materials amassed in the car would have declined……
Well, they did for a while. I actually had the car quite cleaned out and then I had a busy couple weeks where I had numerous places to go and had several trips back to the place I use to live and I transported a bunch more stuff back to my home and then I began to transport my granddaughter around and you know how many odds and ends there are involved with carting a one year old around. And how many crumbs and discarded goldfish that go with keeping her content... Well needless to say the ole car found itself pretty full once again…
Finally I reached the breaking point which was inspired by my need to help out a friend who needed a ride to a neighboring town and I really hated to transport her in a car that was chocked full of this and that and had accumulated those bits and pieces of leaves and dust and crumbs and other matter.
I spend the day emptying all the articles out of the car so there would be room for my friend and a moderate amount of luggage and then the next step was to vacuum…
Easier said than done.
I don’t own a vacuum that is suitable for cleaning out my car so I needed to find one of those places that has the big vacuum machines specifically designed for ridding my car of the extraneous matter. I am new to the area and so I haven’t yet located this life necessity so I went off in search of the car vacuum cleaner business.
I saw a “Free Car Vacuum” sign which looked promising but of course there was a catch - and a line 15 cars long. Off I went to continue my quest when I saw another bank of hose bearing machines - all of which turned out to be broken. All 7 of them!
I continued on - and 45 minutes of searching later went home in grave disappointment and still in my dirty car.
Until later that day I was lamenting about my negative vacuum experience and those who were the victims of my rant said, “There is one right over in the next neighborhood.” Really? I spent an hour of my life looking and the object of my search turned out to be 3 minutes from my house!
Car cleaning accomplished…..
How often do we look for the sources of peace in our life and we look everywhere… we look for hobbies, and sports, and volunteer work and ‘real’ work and even families to bring a sense of peace and purpose to our lives. We get lost and frustrated and even though we know about God and even though we may even be involved in the church, we just haven’t found the right combination of doing the right things and doing as many things as we can and coming to all the right activities. There is still an unsettled feeling about ourselves. The problem is we spend all the time searching when the answer is right there within us. The only real source of peace and purpose is to stop looking for it and just accept the fact that in Jesus Christ we have had it all the time. Stop the search and the struggle and all the things that we try and know that the secret to a peaceful life is simple and it is close and it is to just put your faith and trust and life in the hands of the one who created you.
Sounds simple - but it appears to be pretty hard. It is hard to give up on thinking you have the answers or that you can find them on your own (like trying to find the car vacuum on your own); that the answer is acknowledging you can’t provide the rest for your soul no matter how much you try - but Jesus can.
You can search all you want, but the answer is right there all the time - just like the car vacuum being one neighborhood away!
Amen!!
Joanne!
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.
Use to be I would drive about 1000+ miles each month. I pretty much lived in my car and as a result there was little time remaining to clean it. Now ‘living’ in your car implies all of those things that ‘living’ entails such as eating and storing things and changes of clothes and - you get it - need to live type things.
After a while of ‘living’ in your car there comes to be less and less space for people as all those things that have accumulated while you are driving for the work you do. Plus there is all of those eating in your car crumbs and shoe dirt and tracked in leaves and dust and such...
Having moved to a new location the amount of driving that I have to do has drastically been reduced - drastically. Now, if I drive 50 miles a month for my work it is a traveled month so you would think that the amount of materials amassed in the car would have declined……
Well, they did for a while. I actually had the car quite cleaned out and then I had a busy couple weeks where I had numerous places to go and had several trips back to the place I use to live and I transported a bunch more stuff back to my home and then I began to transport my granddaughter around and you know how many odds and ends there are involved with carting a one year old around. And how many crumbs and discarded goldfish that go with keeping her content... Well needless to say the ole car found itself pretty full once again…
Finally I reached the breaking point which was inspired by my need to help out a friend who needed a ride to a neighboring town and I really hated to transport her in a car that was chocked full of this and that and had accumulated those bits and pieces of leaves and dust and crumbs and other matter.
I spend the day emptying all the articles out of the car so there would be room for my friend and a moderate amount of luggage and then the next step was to vacuum…
Easier said than done.
I don’t own a vacuum that is suitable for cleaning out my car so I needed to find one of those places that has the big vacuum machines specifically designed for ridding my car of the extraneous matter. I am new to the area and so I haven’t yet located this life necessity so I went off in search of the car vacuum cleaner business.
I saw a “Free Car Vacuum” sign which looked promising but of course there was a catch - and a line 15 cars long. Off I went to continue my quest when I saw another bank of hose bearing machines - all of which turned out to be broken. All 7 of them!
I continued on - and 45 minutes of searching later went home in grave disappointment and still in my dirty car.
Until later that day I was lamenting about my negative vacuum experience and those who were the victims of my rant said, “There is one right over in the next neighborhood.” Really? I spent an hour of my life looking and the object of my search turned out to be 3 minutes from my house!
Car cleaning accomplished…..
How often do we look for the sources of peace in our life and we look everywhere… we look for hobbies, and sports, and volunteer work and ‘real’ work and even families to bring a sense of peace and purpose to our lives. We get lost and frustrated and even though we know about God and even though we may even be involved in the church, we just haven’t found the right combination of doing the right things and doing as many things as we can and coming to all the right activities. There is still an unsettled feeling about ourselves. The problem is we spend all the time searching when the answer is right there within us. The only real source of peace and purpose is to stop looking for it and just accept the fact that in Jesus Christ we have had it all the time. Stop the search and the struggle and all the things that we try and know that the secret to a peaceful life is simple and it is close and it is to just put your faith and trust and life in the hands of the one who created you.
Sounds simple - but it appears to be pretty hard. It is hard to give up on thinking you have the answers or that you can find them on your own (like trying to find the car vacuum on your own); that the answer is acknowledging you can’t provide the rest for your soul no matter how much you try - but Jesus can.
You can search all you want, but the answer is right there all the time - just like the car vacuum being one neighborhood away!
Amen!!
Joanne!
These devotions began in 2006 as a way to give us a midweek boost as we live out our lives as the people of God! Feel free to share them if you wish.