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"...But Everything Else Works Great"
The Shreveport-Bossier Buy, Sell, Trade group on Facebook offers a little bit of used everything: houses, vehicles, furniture and appliances, dishes, clothing, electronics, books (my reason for joining it), tools, etc. Stuff is priced from thousands of dollars to just a few, and it ranges in condition from never used (so they claim) to filthy and worn out.
One listing the other day stood out to me. It was a used vehicle. The listing said, “It doesn’t run, but everything else works great.” So, here is your chance to buy a vehicle that does a lot of things well—except the thing that is its very purpose, the one thing you most expect from it.
I fear that there may be a lot of people who fit that description. They are accomplishing good, and many components of their lives are working well. But they are failing at the one thing that really matters, the one thing we are here for: serving God. A man may be successful at his job, whether you measure that success by the monetary gains it produces, by the benefit it brings to others, or simply by the consistent effort he puts into it. He may have a great family: he is a loving and faithful husband, a devoted and caring father, a considerate son who provides for his parents when they become dependent due to age, etc. He may be a great neighbor, perhaps even a community leader of some sort. He may demonstrate any number of commendable qualities while having no discernable vices. He may be all that and still be a failure.
Our purpose here is to serve God and thereby glorify Him. The only way we can be right with Him is through His Son (Acts 4:12). We must be Christians, disciples of Jesus. We must live that way and die that way. If we don’t do that, we fail. Period. It doesn’t matter that “everything else works great.”
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
I can think of at least two reasons why someone might buy a vehicle that “doesn’t run, but everything else works great.” One, you could use it for spare parts. Two, if you are confident in your mechanical ability, you might reason that if you can get it running you’ll get a great deal because nothing else will need repairing. At the judgment, the Lord won’t be looking for “everything else”; He will welcome those who run . . . with Him.
