The old car had lived a good life. “Clem” as she was called seemed to keep on going with no end in sight. When we first purchased her we thought we had gotten a good deal only to find out she was a wreck. We purchased our wreck for $2,600 and to date have spent, well I’m getting ahead of myself.
Clem was born in 1996, in America under a Japanese name. She was perfectly designed by engineers with every nut and bolt in its place. The older couple that originally purchased her took very good care of her until one day when she had an unfortunate accident.
It was a clear crisp morning in our quaint mountain town as the elderly gentleman came to a complete stop. After looking both ways he slowly edged Clem out into the intersection. A young man who was intoxicated T-boned Clem in the front left side. What could have been a fatal accident turned into the young man’s arrest and Clem getting loaded onto a flatbed towing truck.
“Oh your rack and pinion has to be replaced, there is major frame damage and several body parts need replacing. We estimate $ 5,750” said the service writer at the dealership. Reluctantly the older retired couple dug into their savings to repair Clem.
The tears past and Clem was still putting along when she suddenly began to smoke and caught fire. Luckily, the elderly couple remained calm and waved down a Good Samaritan who jumped out with a fire extinguisher. All three stood by while Clem was once again loaded onto a flatbed truck and disappeared on her way to a local shop.
The mechanic seemed honest enough and his price of $2,700 to replace the starter and some burned wires seemed fair. So the elderly couple dug into their savings once again. They found out later that the starter only cost $175 and that the mechanic had overcharged them for labor.
Clem was now back on the road whizzing along as the miles past by like white boards on a picket fence. As the couple grew older they realized it was no longer safe for them to drive and gave Clem to their granddaughter who was on her way to college.
However, that was not the last trip to the mechanic for Clem. One spring, while on her way home from college Clem began making strange clanking sounds on her left front wheel. Miraculously, the car made it home. The stub axle that had been repaired at the dealership failed. Unfortunately, they didn’t stand behind their work and the starving student had to have the wheel bearing and another stub axle installed.
This time grandpa insisted that Clem be looked at by three separate shops. After the inspection it was determined that the dealership failed to repair the car correctly, however they offered to complete the repair for an additional $3,700. Another one man local shop quoted a price of $ 2,700 but they typically took forever to complete repairs. Another shop across the street, claiming to be a Christian business was very shiny and so was their price of $4,275.
Grandpa had invested so much in Clem he just couldn’t throw her on the scrap heap. So they tried a trusted auto shop (by the same name) that had excellent reviews on a local business app. The repair was completed quickly and for a fair price of $ 1,100 but then offered an extra discount to the elderly veteran.
So what is the moral of the story? Finding honest, fair people to complete any kind of work can be challenging. Christian business men and women should go out of their way to provide honest, fair pricing, while completing the work in a reasonable amount of time. If we represent the Master then we should treat others as He would.
You can’t chase after money, horde it or cheat people to get it. You cannot love God and money because you will either love one or hate the other. The fact is that so much of our lives are filled with this kind of nonsense that we have little time to spend with our Heavenly Father. We are so busy chasing after the wind that we rarely make time to hear God’s still, quiet voice as He tries desperately to get our attention.
The world we live in wants to keep us so busy and distracted, filling up every inch of our lives, that we have little or no time for each other or more importantly God. Take a deep breath, slow down, open a door for someone or just smile. Our journey with each other is our destination. So as the love of many grows cold, may our lights continue to shine.
