Three guys
My life has been touched by three men who have and will have no clue of their impact on me. And the combined time of the impact from all three couldn’t be more than 10 minutes. I met them in early June as we travelled to Europe to spend time with my daughter and her family. During the trip we were given the opportunity to go to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. That is where I met these guys. Each one survived what must have been one of the most horrific experiences anyone can imagine. Each of them is what you and I would call "normal" guys - husbands, fathers, the guys next door. Yet they fought on D-day and were present at the 70th anniversary and I had the chance to speak with each one.
Is the same true in us?
From afar does our life look good to others, but in closer inspection is there decay? Maybe it is from lack of attention, maybe as we see in John 15 it is lack of pruning. Maybe we have grown too distant from God.
Charles Spurgeon once wrote: There would be 3 effects of nearness to Jesus, humility, happiness, and holiness. I see no mention of rust.
Rust is the result of a lack of care, with preventable maintenance. Little Dings happen and go unrepaired then turn into deeper damage and then the rust invades. Left unchecked rust corrosion damages to the point where paint and Bondo won't cover it and you have a real problem. Now what do you do
First you have to look, sometimes you do not know it is there, sometimes you fear it is there but are afraid to see.
Second you have to act on it honestly and quickly. Simply addressing it sometimes is the biggest challenge .
Third and the best solution is to focus on preventive maintenance. Stop the damage - stop the rust before it begins. In the Christian life this is the way we deal with it; we read God's word and we stay focused in prayer, this is our preventative maintenance.
Then, when we see the rust in our life, we confess it. We don't hide from it we acknowledge it in a straightforward way.
Finally, we repent. We don't just apologize; we fix it and we agreed to do it no more.
Spurgeon has it right
Now the question for me is whose life can I touch?
