As a young
person I took a lot for granted. I guess
I just assumed that if things were good when I wanted to use them, they would
be good when I was finished with them.
If I wanted to use dad’s truck, for example, all I had to do was ask and
then put some gas in it after I used it. I didn’t think there was much more to
it. I didn’t realize, or think about it, that Dad took care of everything I
didn’t see.
As I got older
and got my first car I quickly realized there was much more to it than just
saving up money to buy the car. There
was insurance. There was an annual automobile
registration and license. There were innumerable repairs that needed to be made
to a second or third hand automobile. And, I found, the thing just wore out and
continued to get older by the day. Moreover,
I had to maintain a good driving record to have the privilege of driving on roads
that I didn’t build or maintain myself.
There were owner
responsibilities to maintaining my investment.
I have always
(in my mid-years and beyond) been impressed with the commercial advertisement
run many years ago by the Midas muffler and brake shop: “Pay me now – or pay me
later,” meaning, take care of your vehicle maintenance now or pay me ‘big time’
for a repair job later when the thing breaks because you neglected it.
The concepts
of maintenance and neglect carry over to where you live and other possessions
as well as to your health, to your job, and to human relationships. You can’t just take for granted that
everything will stay the same as when you first took interest in whatever it
was.
I have
learned that you must give proactive attention to all these things. You must pay a small price early on, or every
day, to keep what you’ve got in good repair.
Moreover, you must make further investments in the object of your
interest or need. It will, like you, get
older and need ever-increasing attention and care. Even your education
(temporal and spiritual) need regular attention, maintenance, and upgrading. If you just let things slide you will regret
it. If you let it slide too long, the
thing you once valued will be destroyed.
There is a
physical law called the Law of Entropy that says that everything in the
universe is running down and tends toward disorganization and eventually wins
all battles. That may be true in the
physical universe but it doesn’t have to be true in one’s spiritual life.
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