My Car, My Heart

I am not a car person, I promise. I don’t pay attention to them. Cars are cars. I can’t remember who drives which car, and I wouldn’t know one brand from another. Brand? Or is it maker? Who knows. I don’t. So why in heaven’s name does the Lord teach me so many lessons using cars? Cars and canines. But my latest lesson – or reminder, to be most precise – came on four wheels (not legs). Go figure.

My car wouldn’t start. No big deal, right? Oh yes, it was. I was stuck at the garbage dump, right at the top of a hill. I had already dumped all my garbage. Well, that’s not entirely true. Ebullient Esther the rescue dog helped me. Seriously. I couldn’t leave the back of my car open, dump my trash, and trust the happiest hound I’ve just about ever met to stay in the car. So I dragged her along with me – leash and all. Dump, dump, dump. Voila. All my trash gone, I returned Esther to the big back of the car and started my engine.

Okay, I didn’t start my engine. I tried. And tried. Yes, I tried. And prayed. Now, I had already had a rough enough day. I was not in a good space. I even wondered if my attitude had anything to do with it. Who knows. God does. But back to my story. Yes. Yes. Yes! God answered my prayer. The car started. And off I went – straight to my first stop. The tire place. The tire place also does other stuff. Stuff. Oh yes, my life has been full of stuff lately – stuff I don’t desire, to be perfectly frank.

My starter. They told me it was probably my starter. $500. Then they changed their minds. The battery. $100 plus. Oh boy. Oh no. I left. My next stop? An auto store. To get a new battery. They checked my battery. “Your battery is almost dead,” the man told me. Not dead yet. Still has life. Off I went.

Attempt number three. Here we go again. I was wiped out. Wiped out from absolutely everything – not just my car woes. The man spent an inordinate amount of time helping me. He didn’t try to sell me anything. He only wanted to help. He charged me nothing. I looked at him.

So what was the verdict?

“It’s your grounding,” he explained. Little did he know I am so clueless about cars that I didn’t understand anything – now, wait a minute. Just wait a minute.

“This is exactly what God has been showing me today,” I interrupted.

Oh boy. Oh man. Poor man. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Crazy lady – crazy about Christ. Off I went – running (at the mouth, mind you.)

“I actually understand what you’re saying,” I said happily. Okay, I wasn’t overly happy. Not overjoyed. But delighted – somewhat – to see how much I actually comprehended.

“My car is having trouble because it’s not grounding where it’s supposed to,” I said. Admittedly, I probably was a bit off in my terminology. But I got the point. “It needs a place to ground. You said it’s looking for a place to ground.”

“The Lord showed me in my Bible study this morning that I need to be “rooted an grounded in love”. If I am rooted and grounded in anything else, if I do not abide in Him, I am totally off. I must be grounded in Him.”

The man did not reply. I suppose he had better things to do at the end of a long work day to hear how the Lord had just used my car to show me myself.

See, I haven’t been grounded in love too much lately. A little maybe. Not a lot. Not enough. I’ve had too much fear – and other junk – for that. So I have been much like my car. I try to start. I try to do what I need to do. But I have trouble getting started. Looking for a place to ground.

Sigh. The man agreed when I asked to help me with my car on his day off. As for myself, well, I know where to get the help I need.

The Lord. His Word. Grounded. If I am not grounded in Him, if I do not abide in Him, if I do not walk in His love, if I do not study and apply His Word, I am yet another car with somewhere to go and no good way to get there.

My car will get the help it needs. I will get the help I need. I know where to take my car. I also know where to take myself.

Into the throne room. To the mercy seat. Into my Father’s embrace. I bring Him my mess. I seek His forgiveness. I receive it. He cleans me up. He reminds me to seek Him first. He sends me on my way. Grounded in Him. Rooted and grounded in His love.

The Lord told Moses he was standing on Holy Ground.

Thank you Lord for grounding me – in you.

I still don’t know much about cars. But I know more about how to get my engine started.

“Your car is looking for a place to get grounded,” the man said.

Me too.

Amen.

Eph 3:14  “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
Eph 3:15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 
Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 
Eph 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 
Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 
Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Joh 15:1  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 
Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 
Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 
Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 
Joh 15:6  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 
Joh 15:7  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 
Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 
Joh 15:9  As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 
Joh 15:10  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”

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