Sometimes, we require a shock to make a change. Last weekend and this Friday, we received a great shock. Little white specks began floating down from the sky. Last Saturday, they floated down all day. By Sunday morning, so many of these white specks had fallen that they began to pile up on our yards, roof tops and roads. I take Villeneuve Road on the North West side of St. Albert on my way to church. It was snowy and ice covered. My non-winter tires betrayed their weakness in addressing these conditions. Thankfully, I arrived safely at church along with many others of you. Most of the piles of white specks disappeared this week until Friday.
But I suspect that some of us received a great jolt of motivation to address any deficiencies that may exist on our cars when it comes to dealing with winter; that season which is over 2 months away and due to start on Dec. 21. Some of us may have even gone into the garage this past week to see about getting winter tires on for the last 2 months of autumn.
While in the garage, they may have done a quick inspection of the rest of your car. They want to help you ensure that your car is ready and equipped to deal with the harshness of winter which is scheduled to arrive in over 2 months. They check the brakes, oil, transmission fluid, headlights, coolant levels, battery, spark plugs and any other potential problems that your car might have in dealing with that season that will arrive on Dec. 21.
It’s good that they do this. But if you’re anything like me, you kind of cringe when you hear they are doing their 68 point inspection. Because it’s possible that they could find 68 problems that I don’t want to hear about. Yet if there are problems, I do want to know about them. I don’t want my car to be a health hazard. Sometimes we do need to stop and check the state of our car to judge its strengths and weaknesses. Then if we find weaknesses, it is wise to address them before the next season arrives so we can be well prepared for it.
The same is true in our prayer lives. It’s valuable to stop every once in a while and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. If we are doing something wrong or inappropriate in our prayer lives that actually hinders our prayers, it would be good to know about that. Did you know that you can hinder or cripple your prayers?
