“For dust you are and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19
My dad’s business depended on a fleet of delivery trucks to distribute his products. Because they were (and are) expensive my dad saw to it that his trucks were meticulously maintained. On any Saturday, when the trucks were out of service, you could drive around our small town and spot one or more of his trucks in the service bay of a local service station getting washed, tires checked and rotated, oil changed, and so forth. He needed to keep his trucks in tip-top shape for as many years as possible. Even at that, eventually they would wear out and need to be replaced.
Only after I was grown and began to learn more about business, car and home-ownership, and life in general did I begin to appreciate my dad’s meticulous care of his trucks and other equipment. It rubbed off I suppose because I’ve always been a bit obsessive about maintaining things, for example following the manufacturer’s guidelines in maintaining our cars, and having the HVAC systems in our home regularly cleaned and inspected. Yet, things still breakdown, and eventually wear out and need to be replaced.
I try to be that way with my body too, exercising, eating right, and having regular health checkups with my physician. I remember a few years ago when my doctor informed me that one of those “numbers” they look at – cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, I don’t remember which – was elevated, and I objected. “No way, I do all the right things that should prevent that from happening!” “You’re looking at this all wrong,” my doctor replied. “Just think how much worse it would be if you didn’t do all those ‘right’ things.”
One of the great traditions Christians have been observing over the centuries is the season of Lent, the forty days before Easter commemorating Jesus’ wandering in the desert being tempted by Satan. Traditionally, Christians give up something, fast in some way – give up sweets, coffee, meat, or alcohol – or perhaps add something like daily reading of scripture or a devotional. Lent, you might say, is a time of maintenance for us, like my dad’s trucks sitting in those service bays on Saturday afternoon. Eventually we know we’re going to breakdown and wear out, scripture makes that clear – “For dust you are and to dust you shall return,” it says – but observing Lent is sort of a cleansing and oil change that helps keep us spiritually in tip-top shape, and drawing us closer to God.