Maintenance Required

 I was watching my grandson work on his pickup this morning. He needs it to pull his equipment trailer for his welding business. Without that truck, he is unable to fulfill his commitment to his employer or his clients.

This is true of so many things in our lives. Every day living is filled with maintenance items. Some are as simple as putting fuel in our vehicles in order for us to bring food into our house so that we provide sustenance for our bodies. Yes – we need to do maintenance on our bodies daily. There will be times we need help in maintaining our bodies, so we call upon doctors. Seems as though I’ve called on them too often since October 2019, but each time they’ve done well in aiding in maintaining my body.

My Beloved Husband and I have maintained our marriage – celebrating sixty years of marriage since May of 1961, Oh, yes, we had to work at that! Marriage definitely takes maintenance on the part of both husband and wife. It does takes both working on that because at any given time, one of us wasn’t doing our part. When one spouse is working alone, the marriage will fail. Many do.

Children take maintenance, too. Lots of it. Somehow, our society thinks that babies can take care of themselves once they are born. They are not only viable, but no longer need mothers, fathers, families, or sustenance. That having a woman provide maintenance alone during pregnancy is a point of contention to the point of removing the child from any needs, denying them life. For mothers accepting the responsibilities of children, maintenance is necessary for years. The return on loving, caring maintenance is continued love and care for parents. That is a beautiful circle of life.

Too often, poor maintenance on our bodies, marriage, and children can be compared with poor maintenance on our souls. Neglecting maintenance on our souls, as seen by Christians, is death. Thomas Aquinas wrote:  “Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire, and to know what he ought to do.” That reminds me of a very good definition of what is necessary to become a Christian:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.  (Romans 10:13-18 KJV)

Do you believe that last sentence? It wasn’t a full truth in Paul’s day, though he spent his life taking that gospel to a large portion of the Roman world. Today, is there a place that has not had an opportunity to hear that which Paul preached to Agrippa:

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:22-23 KJV)

Look for yourself what is necessary for maintaining a soul. The results are eternally important:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18 KJV)