We didn't have much money when I was growing up. It helped that my Daddy could and would tinker with anything in order to fix it. Toasters, lawn mowers, electric frying pans, anything that had stopped working he would take apart and play with until he figured it out and got it going again.
We once had a television set he had to tinker with. In those days you had to get up and turn the knob yourself if you wanted to change the channel (there were only 3) or the volume. Another knob took care of the horizontal hold, and I imagine most of you are saying, "The what?" Finally, the horizontal hold just quit holding, but he figured out that if you whacked the top of the set firmly, it would hold again. We usually whacked it at least once for every show we watched, but that always fixed the problem.
As for that channel knob, something had slipped in the cogs and it would no longer settle directly on the correct inner slot so you could get that channel. (Don't ask me to explain any of this, just trust me.) The knob was round with two flat places that stood out from the round part, directly opposite each other. That's how you turned it—by putting your thumb under one of those flat spots and the rest of your fingers over the other, pushing clockwise.
Daddy whittled a wooden stick just long enough to wedge between one of those flat spots and the lip of the television cabinet over the channel changing knob. First you put the knob in roughly the right place, then you wedged in the stick and pushed until you got the picture to come in. Then you carefully let go, trying not to breathe too hard that close to the stick, backed away and sat down. Then, and only then, could you get that channel.
Yes, it was a lot of trouble to get the thing to work. It was so much trouble that we were burglarized once and the thieves left that TV. The little stick was sitting on top of it, so we know they tried it and just couldn't figure it out. What thief would want a "high maintenance" TV when the next house probably had one that worked easily?
So why not just buy a new TV? Did I mention the money problem? As long as something worked, we could not afford to replace it. Only when something broke beyond repair, and something that we really needed, did we scrape together the money to replace it, and a television was not a "necessity."
I think we've had a high maintenance lawn mower in our married life, one that had to be started just so, or stopped just so and had to be held just so or it would quit altogether. Many people would have just gone out and bought another, but did I mention the money problem? We had it, too.
I have known some women who bragged about being "high maintenance women." For the life of me I cannot understand why that is something to brag about. You would think they would be afraid their husbands might just go out and get a new one. Unless maybe there are money problems.
And then there are the high maintenance Christians, something else I would never brag about. You know who they are. They want attention about anything and everything in their lives, even if others have similar or worse problems. Everyone is supposed to visit when they are sick or even "just because." If they don't get the attention they think they deserve, they will simply stop attending the worship services and it's all our fault for not taking care of them. They take offense easily and the preacher has to kowtow to their whims to get them back. The elders are supposed to listen to them more than anyone else, and if they don't, they "just might leave." When they do finally do something, they expect lavish praise from the pulpit, the bulletin, and the grapevine or the whole church is labeled "ungrateful hypocrites." If they need a rebuke, everyone walks on eggshells around them trying to figure out a way that won't upset them.
Seems to me that God doesn't have the money problems we have always had. And it isn't about replacement either. God does not need any of us. He bestows His blessings, including salvation, out of love and grace, not because we deserve it. Instead of self-absorption, God wants self-denial and self-control. If we know what's good for us we will be someone who is much easier to get along with and who will work well for Him without needing any of the tinkering nonsense we always had to do with our television. I would think we would all be so grateful to Him and so afraid of hell that none of us would even court the idea of being a "high maintenance" Christian.
Or maybe that high maintenance Christian just needs God to give him a good whack once in a while.
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2Pet 1:10-11).
Dene Ward
We once had a television set he had to tinker with. In those days you had to get up and turn the knob yourself if you wanted to change the channel (there were only 3) or the volume. Another knob took care of the horizontal hold, and I imagine most of you are saying, "The what?" Finally, the horizontal hold just quit holding, but he figured out that if you whacked the top of the set firmly, it would hold again. We usually whacked it at least once for every show we watched, but that always fixed the problem.
As for that channel knob, something had slipped in the cogs and it would no longer settle directly on the correct inner slot so you could get that channel. (Don't ask me to explain any of this, just trust me.) The knob was round with two flat places that stood out from the round part, directly opposite each other. That's how you turned it—by putting your thumb under one of those flat spots and the rest of your fingers over the other, pushing clockwise.
Daddy whittled a wooden stick just long enough to wedge between one of those flat spots and the lip of the television cabinet over the channel changing knob. First you put the knob in roughly the right place, then you wedged in the stick and pushed until you got the picture to come in. Then you carefully let go, trying not to breathe too hard that close to the stick, backed away and sat down. Then, and only then, could you get that channel.
Yes, it was a lot of trouble to get the thing to work. It was so much trouble that we were burglarized once and the thieves left that TV. The little stick was sitting on top of it, so we know they tried it and just couldn't figure it out. What thief would want a "high maintenance" TV when the next house probably had one that worked easily?
So why not just buy a new TV? Did I mention the money problem? As long as something worked, we could not afford to replace it. Only when something broke beyond repair, and something that we really needed, did we scrape together the money to replace it, and a television was not a "necessity."
I think we've had a high maintenance lawn mower in our married life, one that had to be started just so, or stopped just so and had to be held just so or it would quit altogether. Many people would have just gone out and bought another, but did I mention the money problem? We had it, too.
I have known some women who bragged about being "high maintenance women." For the life of me I cannot understand why that is something to brag about. You would think they would be afraid their husbands might just go out and get a new one. Unless maybe there are money problems.
And then there are the high maintenance Christians, something else I would never brag about. You know who they are. They want attention about anything and everything in their lives, even if others have similar or worse problems. Everyone is supposed to visit when they are sick or even "just because." If they don't get the attention they think they deserve, they will simply stop attending the worship services and it's all our fault for not taking care of them. They take offense easily and the preacher has to kowtow to their whims to get them back. The elders are supposed to listen to them more than anyone else, and if they don't, they "just might leave." When they do finally do something, they expect lavish praise from the pulpit, the bulletin, and the grapevine or the whole church is labeled "ungrateful hypocrites." If they need a rebuke, everyone walks on eggshells around them trying to figure out a way that won't upset them.
Seems to me that God doesn't have the money problems we have always had. And it isn't about replacement either. God does not need any of us. He bestows His blessings, including salvation, out of love and grace, not because we deserve it. Instead of self-absorption, God wants self-denial and self-control. If we know what's good for us we will be someone who is much easier to get along with and who will work well for Him without needing any of the tinkering nonsense we always had to do with our television. I would think we would all be so grateful to Him and so afraid of hell that none of us would even court the idea of being a "high maintenance" Christian.
Or maybe that high maintenance Christian just needs God to give him a good whack once in a while.
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2Pet 1:10-11).
Dene Ward
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