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Rusty...

6th February 2009

Hey friends,

Well as many of you know I have been working on cars for some years, and as a panelbeater, you find friends when they need you. But I must say, at times the trade does come in handy.

At the moment I am working on a friends Discovery 4WD. It has some rust in the roof.

When may mate brought this car, it went well, looked good and all, but there was a problem just under the surface. That's right, just under the surface of the paint on the roof, there was a spot of rust that needed attention.

I don't know about you, but at the time I had a heap of stuff on, including my own project, my moke ute.

"I'll fix it" I said, and said again, and again, and again...

Well I saw his car the other day and the rust blister that I noticed over 12 months ago, had developed into a brown rusty disease that was growing. I reckon if I had a mico listening device, you would have heard the disease growing, infecting and destroying the surrounding metal.

Since the roof was now leaking, I made it a priority to fix.

I have completed the repair over a few afternoons and I will finish it off tomorrow. While I have completed many rust repairs in the past, I have stopped to reflect on this one somewhat.

Well in the beginning I could have said "not my car, not my issue" and in a sense that is true.

But my mate had a small problem, that I could help him with, but because I was off doing other stuff, my friends problem grew and became a big problem that eventually would wreak his car, and the cost would be high.

How did I fix it??? Well, it's not a good idea to use a band-aid, the best solution, is remove any obstacles, to peel back the layers and assess the damage, find out what is the cause of the issue.

Then, cut out all the effected area and add a specifically designed patch.

How did I get the patch to stay? Well surgery on my friends problem, needs to be handled with the right tools, so that we can weld in some new metal and melt that steel together.

When the problem is fixed and finished off, the wound is still there, just under the surface, the disease has been cut out and is gone, but the wound has been healed, it has been repaired and finished off.

As I think of my life, I have issues that sometimes I either can't see, or I don't know how to fix.

I don't want my issue or problem that starts off small, to turn into a disease that will eventually come at an even greater cost.

When we have friends who have small spots of rust, we need to make it a priority. We need to offer to share the journey with them to bring about healing, to remove that stain, that if left would create big problems.

Sometimes all we need to do is to draw peoples attention to, their bad comments, their sarcastic tone, their bad language, their listening to the wrong music or looking at the wrong stuff etc, and they may get onto repairing the problem.

However sometimes they need you to share the journey, to help them get to a place of healing and restoration.

Don't just offer a quick fix. Do the time, pay the price, go to God.

God said to inspect your own life, remove the log from your eye so that you can remove the speck from your friends. Absolutely, self examination is necessary!

Washing your car is a great way to keep up the inspections on the car body, so if any rust or other issues appear, you can get onto it.

Same with our lives, Wash your life with the Holy Spirit regularly, and ask him to reveal any issues that need attention. Then get onto it.