Fighting Rust

2 Corinthians 12:15

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.

She looked like a Coke label only she was a truck. To be precise she was my truck, a 1962 Ford F100 Short bed, four speed granny low attached to a 1953 292 Y-block we bought from the guy at the dump after I threw a rod in the 302 we had in it, and custom dual exhaust. A faded red truck with white pinstripes and a white top above the cab. She was my first and I had her for fifteen years. Then I looked up and she was just sitting outback rusting. I could not watch it anymore so I sold her. I did not have the money to fix the rust nor the skill to do it myself, so I sold her to a man who did.

Now, I have another truck, this one had the rust fixed before I bought it. It has been mine for seven years and has served my family well. The rust has started taking over again though. The back fenders are showing the tell-tale signs, the cab corners are showing themselves as well, the headliner is sagging and the seats are getting holey. Things have changed. I have no problem watching this truck rust out. It might even be a good thing. The sword fights, flying discs, and rock collecting and distribution do not seem to frustrate me quite as much as they did before. What is the alternative for a truck? Fix the rust and it will start again, it has already been fixed once, it is a battle with entropy and the second law of thermodynamics. I have learned that scrapes and dents on an old truck are a good thing. A vehicle made for work, to haul or pull. I have visited more than one car museum. Long buildings full of shiny pristine car after car. Climate controlled buildings designed for the purpose of preservation.  Never to hear the throaty rumble of a well-tuned engine again.

In Second Corinthians Paul is telling of his love for the church and how he willingly will let himself be spent for the church. There is a great deal to be seen in an old couple that suffered the slings and arrows of life together. Calloused hands and bent backs, youth and strength spent providing for her, and beauty and body spent caring for him and his children. To spend and be spent on that which we love and for that which we were created for is no sad thing. To never be used for that which you were made for is far more depressing than to be used and have the scars and calluses to show for it.

“Why has God made you strong?” is the question I always put to my boys. The Answer is “to protect girls and those weaker than you.” This is normally recited when one of them has decided fighting with his sister is what is needed. However, the other problem is also a rejection of the purpose of their strength. Not only hurting girls, but choosing not to use your strength when it is needed for the protection of others is also a failure of purpose.

It doesn’t take long for the rust to set in. It doesn’t take long for the house to look like a wreck. Would you have it another way? Solomon reminds us that “where there are no Oxen the manger is clean” knowing that often the frustration will often get to us, and we might be so foolish as to wish it weren’t so, but he continues and tells us that “abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” It is not strange, unusual, or even wrong to get frustrated when life gets messy and when you start to tell that you are being spent for something or someone. We were made to work and help work, to spend and be spent, to be of use to our master. What a joy it is to know that God has used you until he calls you home. That we might know when that day comes, we have been used, and abundant crops are brought into the harvest. Do we really want to get to the end and realize we have “a lot left in the tank?”

When it is messy and the rust is showing, keep plowing, Satan’s scared and you're being used! Let us not grow dusty!

John Calvin’s friends petitioned him to stop writing his commentary and rest. He was dying and would not rest. His response “What! Would you have the Lord find me idle when he comes?”

CORAM DEO