Out of Gas
For fun I work on old cars. Well, sometimes it isn’t fun, but often I find great fulfillment in repairing or restoring something that previously was inoperable or in disrepair. It’s my favorite form of recycling. Recently, I was working on an old Buick I have. The car was owned for years by an older lady who didn’t drive it all that much, and as a result it actually has lower miles on it than our other vehicles. However, some things were in disrepair. Ever since I bought the car I’ve had problems with the fuel system. I’ve replaced the fuel pump, the fuel lines, rebuilt the carburetor and even pulled the fuel tank so I could ultimately make the gas gauge functional. After I had done all the work and put everything back together, I filled it up with gas and I got the car running again. It was a great moment. Carburetors can be a little finicky so even though the car was running, I still needed to make some adjustments. After much tweaking, I just knew I had the engine tuned perfectly. I was so pumped. I couldn’t wait to drive this car!
The previous owner cut the muffler off the car, so it sounds more like a muscle car than your grandmother’s Buick. The engine just purred in my driveway. I got in the car and backed out of my driveway only to have the car hesitate a little bit. For a second I thought it was going to stall and then it picked back up. I pulled the car back forward and drove around the cul de sac where I live and it kept spluttering and struggling. I was so frustrated. All the tweaking and it still wasn’t running right. What did I do wrong? I parked the car in the driveway and got out to look under the hood. The car quit running. I restarted it and got out again and the same thing happened. What in the world? This time it wouldn’t restart. Frustration built as I thought about all the time I had spent on it. Why am I even trying to do this? All kinds of other complaints went through my mind and then it occurred to me; I had just run out of gas. No wonder it wouldn’t run correctly!
Most of us are just like my old Buick. Sometimes our lives just aren’t working the way we would like. We’re struggling along, barely making it through life. When that happens, most of us tend to think through all of the things about our life that might broken. We might think about our job—I’ve got the wrong job. We might think about our marriage—I’m married to the wrong person. We might think about our home—If I just lived in a different location. We can run through all kinds of major life changes we believe would fix things. Often, our problem is much simpler than that. You might just be out of gas.
Psalm 119:25 says this: “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!” For the follower of Jesus, the Word of God is like fuel. “My soul melts from sorrow; strengthen me according to your word” (Psalm 119:28). When we drive around on E, life just sputters along. Fuel up in the Word. You need more than a drop or two. Fill up in the Word of God and then you’re ready for the road! “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” (Psalm 119:32).