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Car Troubles?? For What it's Worth...
Some Things are Worth Redeeming and Restoring…
The car had set in the back lot behind the weather worn barn for the last 40 years. It had began it's life brand new and it was extremely beautiful and people admired it both near and far. But it's life was cut short when things started to go wrong. It had some problems like engine failure and something was wrong in the wiring and it's beautiful life was cut short. And then it was towed out to the back lot and it just sat there collecting dirt and rust.
Then one day a visitor stopped by and said he happened to notice the old car underneath the junk that had been piled on top of it. He asked the man,"How much for the car?". The man said, "that old piece of junk?"
He said, "I bought that car brand new and I couldn't tell you about the problems it's given me?"
The man who was interested said to him, "Did you ever fix the problems?"
He said, "Naw... I never had the time to really look into it".
The man said, "I'll give you two hundred dollars for the car."
The owner, "I'll give you Fifty dollars to take it!" and laughed. He said, "If you want that car I'll give it to you for free if you'll just haul it away".
The man who came smiled and said, "It's a deal"
He backed his trailer in and began to clear everything off the car time had put there. Over the years things had begin to pile up on top of it and anything that was discared was put on top of that "old" car. Over time the weight of what was on top had pushed it to the ground. The man who bought the car took great care as he began to move everything on top. He didn't want the car damaged more than it was. He worked diligently and quietly somewhat angry that the man who owned before never realized what he had. To that man this was just a used up old car that had caused him problems in the past and wasn't any good for anything in the future.
It took the man over ten hours to remove everything from on top of the car and when he was thru he sat back and just looked at the car. It sat there windows rolled up tightly and had very little rust actually. Apart from some dings and scratches from the junk on top of it, it actually still had much of it's previous splendor. The sun just happened to be going down and the front fender caught the gleam and reflected it's beautiful rich light blue color into the new owners eyes. His heart skipped a beat because he knew he had found a treasure. He got back to his place later that day and unloaded that "old" car and rolled up his sleeves and went to work.
A year later the Barn Owner was walking down the street and saw a beautiful gleaming car setting in the town sqaure parking lot. There were a number of folks walking around it and admiring it. He was shocked at the condition and even more shocked when he realized that he had one just like that car. He walked up and stood admiring it's beauty.
"Had one like that myself", he said to no one in particular. A voice behind him said, "really".
"Yep, but my car went out of business years ago and I told some sucker to haul it away and it wasn't good for anything"
He then turned to the man behind him and was shocked. It was the same man he had given the car to.
"Yes" said the man, "It's the same car"
"But how?" said the shocked man.
"You see, when I pulled all the junk you had piled on top of it over the years I begin to understand what had happened. The car had just shut itself up and the windows had been left up and protected what was inside but you had put so much junk on it on the outside you begin to lost sight of what it truely was worth and when you looked at it all you saw was the junk on it and forgot what was underneath".
"I took the car back to my shop and it took me a good year to restore it back to it's original condition but that year really paid off because of the way it looks now"
"But, but", the man sputtered,"the engine and the wiring were so bad"
"Your problem", said the new owner,"was that you never took the time to look and see what the problem was. You see the year you put it behind the barn we had an extremely rainy season and somehow water had got into the engine and caused some of the parts to rust thereby causing the car not to run. I took the engine completely apart and cleaned the parts and put some new parts on and put it back together, installed it in the car and it started right up and here it sits completely restored and useful once again".
I will let you draw your own conclusions to the story I have written..
But sometimes the Church is like this car.
We use people until they have problems and then we send them out
behind the barn to sit. And we began to pile "junk" in the form of words until they get so "weighed down" they can't or won't move. And everytime we look at them we see the "junk" and not their value..
Maybe we need to look at some folks who we have considered not useful... and SPEND THE TIME to redeem them and restore them pulling all the "junk" off we put on them and take time. Many of these folks would come out shining like Gold... and Very useful in the Kingdom of God once again.
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