the electrics in your car…

I have preached three times this year on Ephesians 6 and the Armour of God. In speaking about the battles we face in the Christian life, I’ve noted that Christians, along with the spiritual battle they face, also have to contend with the general stresses and strains of living in a fallen world. In the sermon I put it this way, ‘If you’re a Christian the pound in your pocket is not worth more than the pound in your next door neighbour’s pocket, neither are the anti-bodies in your blood stronger than the bloke down the pub’. However, in the last few weeks I would have been tempted to include a third example, ‘Neither are the electrics in your car more reliable than your friend's’.

Yes, there are few things that bring home to me  the reality that our current world is subject to frustration and imperfection more than an unreliable car. So after three weeks, a new alternator, a new fuse box, 7 days of car-lessness while it was in the garage, and the inevitable ‘stinger’ of the garage bill – we still have the problem of the battery light randomly coming on and threatening to force the car into shutdown (as has happened twice now).

Being of course so dependent on our car and hating all inconvenience in my life, it’s been  a struggle not to become obsessive about this issue. Indeed me and my wife (neither of us who have any engineering or electrical knowledge) have spent some time speculating widely about possible causes and trying to identify tell-tale patterns in the randomness of the battery light. I’ve spent time on web forums trying to see if someone has had a similar problem. All as if, I’ll maybe discover the magic fix while the mechanics with decades of experience continue to scratch their heads (and systematically charge me for replacing every component in my car). Obsessed? I’m even writing a blog on it!

However, in my saner moments, I’ve been able to reflect a bit more maturely and hopefully spiritually on what God might want to teach me in such a situation. So here goes….

1.    Perspective. It’s a hassle, annoying, expensive – but ultimately not a crisis. I’m writing this in the week the Philippines has been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan: the scenes of devastation and human misery are truly shocking and indeed humbling. Not that I should need a typhoon to shame me about being so self-pitying, there is more than enough misery on my doorstep to remind me of real difficulty and hardship in life. Like most Westerners I’m quick to make mountains out of molehills and elevate my relatively minor woes into great traumas. I remember a number of years ago a couple, who were scarcely at a church prayer meeting (you know the one for Mission, the sick, the nation), suddenly sending out ‘panicked’ prayer requests because they were struggling to sell their house. Lord give me perspective – not least in what I pray about.

2.    Jonah-esque Priorities. This follows on from the above but the story of Jonah came back to me in all this. Remember Jonah, after announcing his message of judgement to Nineveh, retreats to an overlooking hill in order to observe its destruction. But it’s hot, so God in His providence provides a shady plant for Jonah to sit under, however the next day God in his providence withers the plant – and Jonah is baking. All Jonah’s concern then becomes focussed on his personal comfort even to the point of crying out, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live’ (Jonah 4:8). It’s a shocking indictment, here is a man apparently blasé about a people facing judgement, who can take in his stride the forthcoming ruin of a city – but falls apart when his sun-shade malfunctions. Oh for a tenth of the concern for the welfare of my neighbours and my city that I have for my car! I can only pray that God will soften my heart in that regard and give more compassion for others – but in the meantime I do need to stamp on my own tendency to get stressed over such relatively trivial things.

3.    Grace. Along with the tough rebukes that I feel in this, I’m also conscious of grace. I’m conscious of the fact that 20 years ago this kind of situation would have ‘killed me’ – I would have been ‘up the walls’ with worry, trying to solve it, fretting about mechanics and how things might work out. Yes, I’m still a bit snarled by it – but not half as much. God does work in our lives by the Holy Spirit and I’m thankful for the evidence of that grace even in writing this blog.

4.    Hope. Whether a typhoon or unreliable electrics, we are surrounded by the reminders that this world is broken, it does not work properly, it is not as it should be. We live in a world subject to frustration and decay – a world bearing all the hallmarks and scars of having rejected its Creator. That’s not to be fatalistic – yes I want Vauxhall to build more reliable cars, and much more importantly there to be better flood defences, housing, and social conditions in the Philippines – but I also know none of those things is the ultimate cure to this world’s frustrations. Our great hope is in a renewed Creation brought back into line with the good Creator whose ways are life, health, blessing and perfection. For those who have that hope, the trials of life should make it burn that bit more brightly.