Alignment

A couple of weeks ago I looked at my wife’s vehicle and noticed some wear on her front right tire that didn’t look quite right.  After further inspection it became fairly obvious to me that the vehicle was most likely out of alignment.  This must have been a pretty easy diagnosis based on the fact that maintenance of any kind isn’t my area of giftedness.

After this quick assessment it was necessary to ask my wife a few questions:  Any issues in how your vehicle is handling?  Is it pulling to the right?  This all led to a fairly quick answer of not really.  A few days later my son drove her vehicle and I asked him the same questions when he got back only to hear yes to the same questions.

The reason for this is because it started pulling gradually and she drives it every day and hadn’t really noticed it but for him it was obvious because he hadn’t driven it for a while. 
This is exactly what happens to us we gradually start having areas of our life we get out of alignment in accordance to our walk with Christ. 

We are getting our vehicle into the shop and getting it fixed immediately for safety reasons and for financial reasons so that we don’t cost ourselves additional money in the future for other issues that could come from this.

Isn’t this the sense of urgency and attitude that we should take when we see ourselves getting out of alignment?  How do we know when this is occurring?  Do we show wear like those tires did?  Does someone need to point it out to us?

The answer to all the above is yes!  
First we can check with Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

When we are in alignment we display the fruit which encompasses all of the above it isn’t multiple fruits so if one is missing we are out of alignment.

Maybe you can notice this on your own or maybe you need a good accountability partner, men’s group, family member, minister, etc to help point this out to you.

The key is that we need to be more concerned about being in alignment in our relationship with Christ than we are with our vehicles pulling to the right and willing to take as immediate of action for ourselves as we are at getting our vehicle into the shop.

If you, like me, find yourself out of alignment from time to time please act quickly and biblically.

In Christ,

Matthew Likens

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