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The trouble with old things today...

5th December 2008

Man, I am so excited... I just gt myself a 1952 Hillman Minx - free - and she's a beauty. I have already called her Jasper (yeah, I know... weird name huh?) but I love her... the engines still okay... the body a bit rusty... the seats are springy and faded... the flooring is bare (i.e. there is none)... and the tyres are bare as... but she's all mine and I love her...

The other day while I was working at cutting out rust and bogging the vacant holes that were left, I realised - oh man! I've still got to fix the radiator, get new tyres and brakes, put seat belts in (our grandparents were daredevils with no seat belts), and try to make sure the engine doesn't fall apart just so I can get her registered... but I still love her...

One of my neighbours came past the front of my garage and commented on the "antiquitous nature of my vehicle" and that "you'll never get that running properly again". He then went on about the hoons on the streets with their racers and the drug addicts and alcohol abuse and teen sex and suicide rates increasing and... he finished (hallelujah!) with the phrase that we all have come to cringe at... "I don't know, youth today".

YOUTH TODAY? What does he mean YOUTH TODAY? There are many times I want to say OLD PEOPLE TODAY! And suddenly I was stopped in my tracks by the Holy Spirit and reminded that in 1 Peter 3 it talks about sharing our faith, the certainty and hope we have in Christ, with gentleness and respect.

Well stick a fork in me and say I'm done... this old guy was having a go at me about all the things that disappoint him and upset him and trouble him and he focused that resentment and blame on a generation he doesn't understand...

And I came to realise something... it probably wasn't too different in his day... that rock 'n' roll music, those flared pants, that long hair, those volkswagens with flowers patterns all over them (which are still pretty cool I might add)...

And now this generation are facing what their parents generation faced... a new youth culture so different and foreign to theirs, and they don't know how to react except the way their parents reacted to them... I found a kind of respect for this old guy and then thought about my Hillman sitting in front of me... I don't understand it (I'm no mechanic, ask my brother-in-law who is)... I can't control the degree of rust and decay that has happened in the body and seating... I can't afford everything straight up that I'd like to do on her, it will take time and patience.. but I love my car...

A gentleness in my voice was apparent when I said to him, "you don't need to understand, you don't need to be in control, you don't even need to keep up with the new trends and culture...you need to love and appreciate the difference between what you know and what is now."

Jesus reminds us in the gospels that the greatest commandment is to "loveyour neighbour as you love yourself". That's it! Nothing hard about it... RIGHT? RIGHT!

So next time you find yourself chucking a hissy because your old car won't start or an older person treats you with judgment and contempt, remember:

...love and appreciate the difference between what you know and what is now! And remember, we are Jesus in a world that doesn't know him... YET...

Ciao for now... Roscoe