Recently, I was thinking about this because now that I'm an adult, husband, homeowner, and father, there are a lot of check-ups going on and it's hard to keep up. It made me think about faith too, more on that later.
The latest tune-up was the water filter, replace every 6 months, well it was just replaced and it was probably 2 years. Whoops, no wonder the water tasted awful. There was another one too. The camcorder battery was shot, we needed a new one. Guess who didn't get to tape Christmas morning with their family without plugging the camera into the wall and looking like a dog on a lease, this guy.
So, I had to do the tune-ups. Search for the replacement filter, make sure it was the right one, purchase the filter, wait for it to come from the distributor, etc. You feel me. It took effort, but once it was taken care of we're drinking cleaner water. As much as I don't like tune-ups and check-ups sometimes, they help teach me a few things.
1. I can't remember everything, all the time. God forgives us because only He is perfect. This means we are NOT.
2. It makes me think of other areas that need a check-up or tune-up. (Hmm...?)
3. It helps me realize I need God's and other people's help to do some things I'm not good at. (I can change my own oil, but it takes me forever, and a mechanic can do it in a few minutes.)
4. Once the tune-up is made, it gives me peace of mind, knowing I did what was needing help.
5. It helps me want to manage my time better. The more efficiently things are working the more efficiently I can spend my time because if we don't tune things up it can really damage them.
It's the last one that really spoke to me. I strive to use my time better to make sure all systems are go. I carve out time for daily prayer by, read the readings, a small devotional, blog post, excerpt from a book, bible verse, and anything else that will positively impact my personal Catholic faith. I've found if I don't do the daily or a few times daily tune-up, I don't feel clean and I'm drained (like that camera battery). However, the effects after spending that small amount of time tuning my faith up always pays off a lot bigger for me because I'm feeling fresh, I know God's with me and I feel like I'm on the same page with my God. It charges me up and for a short amount of time it gives me peace of mind, before I have to do it all over again (and again, and again, etc,)
Where could you charge-up, tune-up, or clean-up your faith in Christ? Make a step towards that.
Peace.
Nathan