What's under the bonnet?

I'm an engineer by first profession, having trained as an Apprentice Mechanical and Production Engineer in my early twenties, but in truth it goes more than being in my skill set, it's somewhere embedded as a core part of my existance. Some of that may well come from the way that God has shaped me, but alot may also go to my Dad, and watching him. Dad was a Royal Engineer amd had an extremely broad skill set of building houses, constructing bridges, repairing engines, wiring and plumbing, in fact the skills just rolled on and on. And he gave alot of those skills on to his sons. And we would watch him re-build the engine on one of our cars, or mend his own. But it seemed to go much deeper too with him - yes skills, yes experience, but the pondering of the small details and diagnostics and keeping going until it was finally solved. I still remember to this day him putting a long plank of wood on to an engine block and putting his ear to the end, and listening, and then saying, "hmmm, tappet number 6 is not getting any oil and it's too noisy" and then making a plug out of wood to increase the oil flow! Now this rubbed off on me, and I will often listen for the slightest strange noise on our cars, and a mere variation will make me wonder if something is amiss and, more often than not, think the worst. And of course, as a result, generally I love nothing better than to fiddle and mend under the bonnet to sort or repair something out. I'm currently crowing at the moment from resolving the car heating on my import - no Haynes manual you see, a mere online user group, and now after one or two attempts, we're now driving in a constant Sauna! Still a bit to do here!
So last night completely baffled me, and my offline computer brain is still cranking this around, our Citroen breaks down on one of those Dad and Mum Taxi runs, and I start to cringe inwardly at the thought of more garage bills. Well to cut along story short, a recovery man comes along, plugs his computer in the car's computer, and then re-sets the car's computer, and within 7 minutes we're sorted and back up and running. Now that's not meant to happen in my mind, though I'm grateful for it. You shouldn't repair cars by re-booting the computer, you have to fiddle around under the bonnet for a long time, and then solve it! Pooh-bah to these modern cars. But my brain is saying "I want one of those little computers now too!"

It made me ponder this morning that our lives are like cars. What is under our bonnet, and what is really going on? The Bible is stacked full of people who had issues under the bonnets of their lives. The problems couldn't be seen, and some people's engines were far from running smoothly.
The truth is that we all, without exception, have to confront the problems under our bonnets. From childhood, we don't grow up with everything ticking as it quite should. Character traits are picked up, behaviour patterns are learnt from adults around us. Adjustments are always needed. The sad thing is that I meet people who are afraid to confront what's under the bonnet. An external behaviour defect is, for some some, all that is at fault, yet they just cannot bring themselves to explore and delve beneath the bonnet to see and resolve what's really going on. And, sadly time and time again they trip up over the same areas because that inner exploration, a diagnostic check through, has not taken place.
When that happens, there is not much one can do, but discipleship rarely has any effect when someone is unwilling to face up to the deeper discipleship issues in the inner person.
And in some respects, once the core issues are dealt with, then, seemingly, discipleship becomes a lot more fruitful.
The truth is that in discipleship terms, there are no quick fixes, but on the other hand there can be the some significant and vital adjustments and repairs that are necessary, and which will often then make the engine of our spiritual lives begin to sing.
How do we help see their significant issues? I don't know. It seems to me that some people will never grasp the level of self awareness and spiritual awareness that is necessary to stop and do a full diagnostic. And some of these people sadly get into significant places of leadership and often feel that such issues are no longer required. What will it take I ask? Only a work of the Holy Spirit, and our own human spirit to be willing to change.

There are less days in 2014!

More than enough people said to me before Christmas, "Where did this year go? I cannot believe it is coming up to the end of the year, again!" or "This year has gone way too fast!" And I have actually sat down to check my diary as to whether was a month or two that was missed - but nup! That was 2013, all 365 days of it. I can even remember the mental note I made at the end of 2012, that that year had gone too quickly, so 2013 - well someone has adjusted a small dial somewhere to speed up the treadmill! Who is it? I want to know! Because quite simply, it's not on!
The truth is, as I reflected this morning, that for most parents, let alone adults, if we are to achieve what we need to today, then you shouldn't have gone to bed until 11.30pm last night, then you needed to have got up at 2am, strapped the smartphone on to your head for a direct feed of all emails, texts and social networking comments and replies, the landline gaffer taped to your ear whilst your elderly parents tell you they've had such a busy day driving to shop and back, with one hand on the hoover, the other hand putting a load through the washing machine, the other stirring a pot of food, the other hand cleaning shoes, the other hand dusting, the other hand writing cheques for children's school costs and after school costs, the other hand washing up, and all this whilst driving the children from A to B to C, whilst popping into the supermarket, then on to D, and then back to A. Oh and then you also need a direct feed of the freeview or sat box into the brain so that you can catch up on all the fascinating programmes that you MUST watch. And that's only half the story!
It's amazing as I zip round attempting to clear up what I find in my journeys: a piece of toast and some DS games down the bottom of the sofa. I've developed this technique that I thought quite clever, based on my engineering days, which is to move things from where they have been dumped back towards the approximate place wherein they belong. By the time I've gone up and down stairs 10 times I have the stuff vaguely on the right floor, maybe even in the right zone. Then it needs completely putting back - thats another story. But the wierd thing is that I'm sure things then get moved back - well it's beyond me!

So, are we living far too busy lives? Yes! Are we enjoying life less? Yes! What's driving us? Not sure! who says that life has to be like this? Don't know!

Jesus said something quite potent on this from the sermon on the mount: "Don't worry about tomorrow, today has enough problems of it's own!" Actually that's the warm up line! The truth of the context of what Jesus was saying is "Trust in God!" and not in yourself.

As for the key question - are there less days in 14? Yes, everyone knows that. It's obvious. It is in fact March 2014 already - wake up because Christmas is coming!