Consider the story of Al. Al loves cars, especially old, broken-down ones. And Al loves going to auctions and buying beaters. You know the ones, right? These are the ones that are rusted out, are missing tires, and need a new engine. They are useless, but not lifeless just yet.
And so Al buys one and fixes her up. But he doesn’t just get it back to its original condition. Oh no, that isn’t Al’s way of doing things. He takes that car and makes it a thousand times better, and a whole lot faster. He re-does the interior, rebuilds the engine, and puts expensive wheels and rims on her. In fact, he does so much that two things happen – first, in some inexplicable way that a dead car comes to have a life of its own; and second, he decides to enter her into a race.
Fast forward to the day of the race. As his precious car is in place and ready to go, she knows she has a lot of work in front of her. If she doesn’t work harder than all the others, she won’t win. But she also knows she can’t win without all of the work and gas and oil that Al has poured into her. And so as the checkered flag is raised and they take off, Al’s car is in this dance of working as hard as she can but also being fully dependent on everything Al has done and is doing to ensure she does the best she can. If she doesn’t run hard and well, she won’t win, but without Al, being right there doing his part, she also won’t win.
As it is with Al and his precious car, so it is with God and His precious people. By His grace, we are what we are and by His grace, we are enabled to work harder than all the rest for His glory. These verses today remind us to do our part in full dependence on what He is doing and to also do so in full recognition that it is only because of Him that we are what we are.
Today, by His grace and for His glory, go and do your best!
Scott Smith
Care Pastor