Just this past Saturday, I decided it was time to wash my Toyota FJ. It was dirty....I mean really, really dirty, both inside and out. But hey, it's not your typical SUV..this is a bad boy, off road vehicle that is designed to handle the abuse I can dish out to it. Only problem is, I have never taken it off road and the most abusive thing I have done to my FJ is that I took it to Houston Texas last year and we survived Hurricane Harvey.
Anyway, back to my story.
When I decided to clean the ol' girl, there she sat, never once complaining that she was dirty. Afterall, this is a mechanical machine, not a human but as a man, we have a tendency to assign certain human values to inanimate objects, such as our cars and trucks.
But when I tell you this vehicle was dirty, I mean it was dirty. I had given my FJ a total overhaul in cleaning and a mechincal checkup just prior to leaving for Houston last June, so I knew she was looking great and highway ready....then.
So off I went. And came back to Kentucky about 10 months later. And I hadn't washed my FJ one time during that extended stay in Texas. I went through the Texas heat and dust, followed by a lengthy and nasty winter only to find that my FJ had gotten as dirty as I believe I have ever seen it. I mean, the grit and grime on the floor was just "stuck" there...it wouldn't budge with a vacuum cleaner. It was like glue. And the wheels, wow, I know black wheels are all the rage right now, but my wheels are a beautiful chrome type magnesium wheel that are supposed to be a bit shiney when clean.
Well, I decided Saturday that it was time to do something. So I embarked on a 5 hour journey of washing and cleaning. I mean, under the hood was so filthy as well and that was going to require some tender loving care as well.
I won't go into detail all that I had to do - but I was sweaty and nasty after I was finished - I kinda looked like what my FJ looked before I started cleaning it, only it was me afterwards.
Now when you see my FJ, she is beautiful and gleaming and it smells great inside and all the gunk and grime is gone. She looks nearly new. Except......
There are places on the FJ that will never be the same. For one, my beautiful wheels. Inside the wheels, in between the spokes, there is a deep oxidizing that has occured due to brake dust and road salt from the winter that sat there for over a year. These places are nearly black and simply will not return to it's normal luster as when I first bought my FJ brand new in 2008.
Then there is the small matter of a few places that had I seen it, I could have eliminated small body dings and scratches. Nothing bad, but they are there.
The interior is doing great, and while the floor is clean and all the grit and grime is gone, there are discolorations from the dirt and mud that sat there too long. Now don't get me wrong, these things aren't major issues but they do distract, at least to me, from the beauty of this vehicle. And all because I neglected to keep it clean for over a year. I did perform regularly scheduled maintenance as required but the body and wheels have suffered due to my neglect.
It was during this time, when I was trying to clean these wheels that the Lord began to speak to me about health and wellness. It was like He was saying, that while our bodies seem to be doing well, even when we neglect them, there is irreversible damage taking place.
This was an A-ha moment for me as a health professional. The Lord was giving me a wonderful example of how we all tend to neglect the care and maintenance of our body and as long as we do the basic stuff, we think all is well. Until one day we decide to clean up our act. We begin to clean off the gunk and dirt only to findout that we have become hypertensive, or diabetic, or our weight has gotten out of control. You can problably think of any number of things...but I hope you get the point.
Unfortunately, when we decide to do something about it, it could be too late for a complete restoration. It may be that at this point we have to include using medication to manage our health, whereas before, we had no such problems. And it just might be, that we can never return to our previous state of health. That's the result of neglect, a lack of discipline and most certainly a lack of conviction. We chose what we wanted instead of what we needed.
Immediate gratification is a pyria to our society. It destroys our conviction; it eats away our discipline and wreaks havoc on our future. Its a cancer that starts slowly and works its way through every aspect of our life. It doesn't just show up one day in a big way - if it did, we would be more apt to face it and fight it but unfortunately, our desire to give in to our flesh starts small and grows a little bit every day. We think, well, that wasn't so bad so I will do it again. We never realize that its the little things, done on a daily basis that becomes the big things in our life.
I had many beautiful and warm days that I could have washed my FJ and really cleaned it up but I wanted to enjoy those warm days because in my mind, I thought, it will be warm tomorrow and I will wash the FJ tomorrow. But you know Kentucky weather, warm one day, snow the next. And I just kept putting it off and all that salt built up on my wheels and oxidized the brake dust and ate into my wheels forever discoloring them.
That's what a lack of conviction does - it breeds a lack of discipline. It makes slackers of us all and we end up paying a big price for it.
Now my wheels still look good and the oxidation won't affect the overall performance and life of those wheels. And if it did, I could buy new wheels I guess. But that's not being a good steward of what God has given me. I did not respect that gift. And it was a gift of sorts because for years I had wanted an SUV - a good SUV and at the time, I was financially able to purchase my FJ. Oh and my intentions were grand at the time; never let it get dirty, always perform maintenance on it, keep it well groomed, etc. But did I? No, I didn't.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't blatantly abuse my FJ, I just didn't care for it like I should have. God gave me a wonderful gift because, trust me on this, it came in handy during Hurricane Harvey in Texas. This FJ can go through about 33 inches of standing water and it proved itself during that time and it did so wonderfully. But I became complacent with my gift. I became a bad steward with it. And it suffered.
You may think I am going on about how my FJ looks. But in reality this isn't about my FJ; its about you and me and how we take care of our own body.
We are the temple of the Holy Spirit and the body God has given us is HIS gift to us and when we accepted Christ as our savior, we were bought with the price of blood and as such, we became HIS. So He places HIS Holy Spirit in us and that makes us HIS temple and as such we are to care for it and make it a great place for HIM to live. But we are Americans. We have a tendency to chase those things we want and not necessarily what we need. And in the end, we pay a big price for it - compromised health.
Nobody is perfect, only Christ. But it is through Him, that we gain our strength and endurance. Will that make us perfect? No but hopefully it will help us keep our wheels clean. :)
Remember, we must be faithful in little if we are going to be faithful in much. There were a lot of men in the Bible that really messed up bad but they were redeemed, repented and got back up on their feet and moved forward in Christ. Granted they had to carry a bit of unwanted baggage with them but that was the price to pay for disobedience and a lack of discipline. Which can sometimes be a strong reminder to us if we get to the point of becoming complacent or lazy in our convictions.
I hope this has blessed you today.
Now go wash that car.
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