Maintenance

“[This is] a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” (Tit 3:8 AV)

The Christian life is often made to seem more complicated than it really is.  Note Paul’s phrase, “I will that thou affirm constantly”.  The truth that Titus is to constantly affirm is no great theological mystery.  The truth that Titus is supposed to preach regularly is not some obscure doctrine.  The content of his sermons is not to mainly contain self-help or encouragement.  Rather, that which Titus is instructed to affirm constantly is the need for God’s people to live Christlike.  One thing I know about maintenance is that maintaining anything is boring and hard work.

For years, that is what I did for a living.  I maintained three different commercial properties.  The physical nature of the work was not particularly difficult.  Mostly composed of janitorial work and snow removal, my job was relatively easy.  However, there were other minor tasks in my daytimer.  Looking after minor HVAC issues was the primary need.  There were plumbing issues, changing lightbulbs, clearing rubbish from stairwells, squeaky doors, broken furniture, lock-outs, etc.  Each day, my co-worker and I walked the properties and made a list of things we needed to get done.  The daily stuff was not the hardest part.  It was the periodic maintenance tasks that got me down.  The daily stuff became routine.  Most of us wait until something becomes an issue too large to ignore before we tackle it.  We wait until the faucet drips before we tighten a screw.  We wait until the car battery cannot hold a charge before we replace it rather than change it every five years as recommended by the manufacturer.  My washer has an automatic self-cleaning feature.  After the sixth load, the light comes on.  However, sometimes it forgets.  So much for a smart appliance.  I wash four loads every week.  That means every other week, in the middle of my routine, I have to schedule ninety minutes for the washer to self-clean.  Rather than wait for that sixth load, I end my laundry day with a self-clean regardless of the load count.  Maintenance!

One of my regular maintenance items was changing out brass hinges on the heavy entrance doors of my main building.  This building is a historical landmark, and the fourteen-foot-tall doors were original to the building.  These doors easily weighed Several hundred pounds apiece.  This meant that the brass hinges would wear away quickly.  The floor underneath the doors was porous marble as opposed to polished.  The doors, if not maintained, would wear away the marble as they sank ever lower.  I had to use a car jack to lift the doors and replace the hinges one at a time.  That was how heavy they were.  This was done about four times a year.  This meant I had to check the doors on a regular basis against the clearance they had to the floor.  Maintenance.  Maintenance requires regular examination and micro adjustments along the way.  Again, boring work; but necessary work.  The hardest thing about maintenance work is that new things are the exception and not the rule.  Changing chemicals in a cooling tower is the same from one time to the next.  Changing filters on heat pumps every three months is pretty much the same process every time you do it.  Maintenance is hard because it is boring and routine.  Unless maintenance is done, the entire system breaks.  We want to be entertained.  We want the preaching or bible reading to be fresh and new.  Most of the time it is maintenance.  Most of the time, it is a reminder of things we already know.  Most of the time it is the LORD bringing to the forefront what has lapsed over time.