Wayne Weekly “Rusted Bolts”
Written by Wayne Taylor on October 25, 2017
My car, suffering from the bumps and bruises of pot hole laced streets, utility repairs, cracks and other road hazards, finally couldn’t smooth out my ride anymore. It was time for new struts.
You may know, vehicle struts are not cheap. When cars used shock absorbers in the front end, things were affordable. That was a fairly easy backyard mechanic project, but even at a repair shop, it was a pretty low cost repair. Things have changed…and to be fair, probably for the good.
Under protest from my wallet, I made the appointment. I now had new suspension in the front end of my high mileage car. All is well, so I thought!
The banging and clanging and creaking was frightening. I thought my wheels were going to fall off. After returning to the garage, my mechanic told me that it was all in the frame, and I would have to live with it.
Huh? After spending hundreds on new struts, I had to live with the unsettling sound of metal against metal? It got louder. I returned. The repair shop said I would have to replace the frame (sub-frame). This could not be…could it?
Next stop another shop. Your sub frame bushings are shot. We can do the job in an hour for a bunch of money. I resigned to the awful act of sinking money into an aging car. I was between, as they say, a rock and a hard place. Go ahead. Seventy minutes later… “Mr. Taylor”, the shop manager addressed me holding up a broken bolt. We have a problem mission control. The bolt, stubborn from the years of central NY winter highway salt just would not budge no matter what. The bushing bolt had snapped off and I was left without a vehicle for the rest of the day and the one following. I’m at work now, having borrowed my sister’s SUV, waiting for “the call”.
I’m reminded about how sin can be like that rusty bushing bolt. Sinful habits are threaded into our lives deep. If we don’t repent, and take steps to free ourselves from that sin, the threads rust in. The removal becomes more difficult, so seated in our lives that removing the well-seasoned sin may end up a monstrous task, and may snap off leaving pieces behind that have to be removed piece by piece, and with much effort and trial.
Yes, God can deliver from sin’s grip, and at times He does, totally and at once. But more often, deeply rooted sin that has not been dealt with becomes a major repair, and the correction may take longer than anticipated.
You and I have to guard our hearts against sinful acts that can become deeply rooted vises. If we have sin in our lives that we ignore, they will rust tightly into our lives, and the removal of that practice, might have to be broken off in pieces.
God is gracious. God is able to come to our aid. It might be time to visit the repair shop in the throne room of God for some “preventative maintenance”.
For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Hebrews 2:18
