REQUIRED MAINTENANCE

In 2009, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger famously landed a failing passenger plane on the Hudson River, saving all 155 people on board. When people called it a miracle, Sully pointed to something else: decades of routine training. He said, “We had hit the jackpot of bad luck, but we had a lifetime of preparation.” He didn’t have time to learn how to handle an emergency in the moment of crisis; his hands knew what to do because of habit. In other wards he knew what to do when the time came. Because he had trained and prepared for that moment in his life.

I am a person who likes to be organized and proper for things that may arise. I like to have a plan and then a backup plan. And hopefully a plan C just in case. Instead of bringing one Mountain Dew in my cooler, I want three Mountain Dews in my cooler. Just never know when the first may not open, and the second will not be 32.7 degrees. So, I then will have a third to fall back on. Sounds very logical to me. We do what we need too to be better prepared for those things that may arrive unexpectedly.

I think of the unexpected trials in our life. And we all have them. If you are breathing today, you too have or will have those unexpected trails. They are unexpected because you did not see them coming. Hit you all the sudden. You did not ask for them, and you did not want them. But here they are. So, what’s next? Hopefully you have been preparing for this to happen.

Paul is explaining to Titus this very concept in the above verse. He is telling him to be right in his life then there will be some required maintenance to be done. Those times in your life when you’re on the Mountain Top is the best time to do maintenance. When everything seems good. Because then when the troubles and trails arrive, we can be better equipped to get through the valleys of life. It makes it so much easier to live right. As we grow as Christians along the way we need to stop every now and then and perform our Christian Maintenance. This involves a church home to church with like-minded believers. We need church in our life because this helps us to grow. We do not have to go through the valleys by ourselves. We need accountability. A good Bible believing church helps with this.

How about this. We need to read our Bibles more. Do you realize that this is how God speaks to us. When He left this world and ascended into Heaven He left two things. The Holy Spirit (Thank you for leaving Him), and He left His word. The Bible tells us in Psalm 138:2 that He has magnified thy word above all thy name. I have told people before going through hard times to read their Bible even more. It really does help.

And what about this. Pray more. This is how we speak to God. It is amazing to hear someone that wants to pray when they are going through something, but when things are ok, this prayer never seems important. We need our prayer time to be even more important when things are good. We need to have such a tight relationship with God so when the storms of life come our way, we can handle them better. How much easier would the Christian life be if we had more people doing some much required maintenance.

I’m doing some maintenance tomorrow. And I will give you one guess where that will be…