I have always enjoyed washing my own cars by hand. When I was

younger and had those first couple of cars, I would wash them almost weekly. I get relatively technical about it. I use the two-bucket method, which involves rinsing out the dirty rag in a bucket of water before it goes back into the soapy water bucket. You don’t want debris to scratch or swirl the paint! I do the wheels first with their own bucket so that they don’t wait until the end, causing the water to dry and spot the paint. I like to get a close up view of the paint. I tend to know all the various blemishes, dents, and scratches on the car.

Last year we traded in our ten-year-old minivan on a new Toyota, although we downsized a bit from the minivan. One of the things that amazes me is how quickly the paint is getting chewed up. There must be more stones on the highway around Southeast GA, because I have more chips in the paint than I am used to having after many more miles and years of driving. That or Toyota is getting stingier with their paint process, and the car simply isn’t as well protected as they used to be. Because of the increased threats to the car from things like love bugs, I had that clear plastic film wrapped on the front panels, so the worst of it is being kept at bay. Regardless, it’s already sporting at least three chips through the paint.

I shouldn’t get as frustrated as I do. It’s a car. It’s a device to get us from point a to point b. I am grateful that I have two of them, realizing how many do not. Although I want it to look shiny and pretty, that’s actually a low priority when compared to the functioning of safety features and things like the transmission. My history tells me that I won’t spend money to fix scratches and dings beyond what I can do myself, which is probably why it annoys me – when one shows up, it’s there for the life of the car. There is nothing I can do to prevent such blemishes. I suppose this kind of thinking is not worth the energy, and so I try not to worry about it. This is a very first-world problem, I know.

Unfortunately, cars aren’t the only thing to gets dings and dents. Life has a way of coming at us in sharp jabs and dull thuds too. We often try to protect ourselves as best we can, but no matter what we do, we’re going to get chips in our paint. I don’t mean scrapes and bumps and paper cuts, but rather the types of things that cause blemishes not so apparent on the surface. I might be able to see the rock chip on someone’s hood, but I need to get to know them a bit before I see the one on their heart.

Some of us feel like walking targets. I think my Highlander has a bulls eye for bouncing rocks on route 95, and some folks feel the same way. It can feel like one thing after another; a loss here, an unkind word there, a failure as we were looking away for a moment – all sorts of things whack away at us. I’m not talking about the big things, like major illness or death of a spouse; those would be akin to a major collision in our life. I’m talking about the more subtle things that aren’t life-changing in and of themselves, but which have the ability to be life changing over the long term. Too much of that and the shininess of our lives begins to dull.

Working to develop deep spiritual roots and keeping out faith strong is one of the best ways to weather such things. We will never be bullet proof, yet if we can keep track of our status as God’s beloved sons and daughters it will help deflect the smaller things and help us weather the big things as well. Offering our confession and hearing that we are absolved is another way to keep ourselves refreshed; after all, some of those little dings and dents are self-inflicted (and a wash and wax is always helpful!).

There’s a saying about not sweating the small stuff…and remembering that it’s all small stuff. There’s something to that. Life is full of little trials and tribulations (it’s also full of great things too – which we’ll talk about another day!), and if we get too focused on them we get sucked into a very negative and life-robbing place. Keeping them in perspective is helpful. Realizing that we are able to be healthy and whole despite the rough edges is important too. If I look to close I see every nick on my car, but from ten feet away, when she’s washed and dried, she shines and sparkles.

If you realize that you’re focusing on every little hiccup, and you realize that it’s making you more negative than you want to be, or causing you distress, take a step back from the blemishes. Take a step towards God and try to see it the way God sees it. Life was never intended to be perfect and shiny all the time, despite our wishes to the contrary. Instead, we can rejoice for all the things are good and clean and sparkling in our lives. If we realize that the vast majority of our lives are in good shape, we tend to worry less about the little things. God is at the ready to remind us of all that goodness.

Life will still be full of bird droppings, and globs of sap; full of love bug splatters and flying stones that bounce off of us. But if we are cruising down the highway with the windows down and our favorite music blaring, I don’t really think we’ll notice.

Tom+

Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we pray, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready both in mind and body, may accomplish with free hearts those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.