A Matter of Maintenance

If you are anything like me then you hate it when things do not work properly, particularly if those things are important or necessary.  I think of the hassle and headache that a broken car can be, the stress caused by a malfunctioning appliance, or even the simplicity of clutter filling my bedroom.  When things are not working properly it can make everything else seem like it isn't either.  While we may all very easily accept such an assertion, I wonder how well it applies to our personhood, namely, our lives.

Think about what it is to be human.  We could easily think of ourselves solely as material creatures, a misconception too often conceived.  In this case, we would consider life merely a matter of consistently performing basic material functions (eat, sleep, drink, excrete, sexual reproduction, et al).  The thought, similar to that of any other physical item, would  be a matter of maintenance, as in, the effectiveness of the human is weighed by his/her thoroughness and consistency in material maintenance.

However, it takes no great genius to see an inherent discrepancy in this proposition.  Humans are not merely corporeal beings.  Constitutionally, we possess inherent non-material qualities such as love, spirit, etc.  Therefore, f we were to reduce our maintenance requirements to the physical and neglect the constitutionally non-physical elements of our natures then we would find ourselves grossly if not wholly anemic and, without fail, working as poorly as that decrepit jalopy that parks in the yard down the street.

But there is an order here that should not be understated: God comes first.  Humans were created to 'run' on God just as gasoline-fueled cars were built to run on gasoline.  And just as cars need more than just gasoline to run, humans need other things too like food, sleep, etc. to run fully it is God who is the ultimate fuel.  It is when we start to think those other things more important or vital than that One thing who is God.  This is like a car having a great stereo, custom paint job, beautiful rims, but no engine.  Let us than keep this perspective throughout the prioritization of our lives so as to always be in focus to running properly!