My thought for the day is that I wish that people would be as faithful to each other as my 1998 Ford Taurus has been to me. That’s the thought. You can close it right here if you want. But if you want a brief history read on.
We were a one-car family and my Omega was about to bite the dust. The only thing that I seemed to have in abundance, in those days, and I do underscore the word seem, is a hard time. It was Sunday morning, I was an assistant pastor with lots of responsibilities. Despite my responsibilities I did not go to Church that Sunday because I was bordering on becoming depressed. That cloudy morning my wife and I decided take a drive to the Ford dealer and just dream. We hoped that our car would make it and it did. When we got there, a salesman was standing out front looking just as destitute as we felt. He said, “What can I do for you?” I said, “We need a car.” He said, “We have plenty of them. How much are you willing to spend?” Even though I had no money and no prospects for getting more money I told him, and he said, “Sir, for that kind of money, I can sell you anything on this lot.” I turned to my wife and said, “Bet (Her name is Betty but we call her “Bet”, so I said “Bet go get any color car that you want.” As we went in the office to finalize the deal I must have said something about the Lord because he said, “I understand about you needing to be in Church but I was praying that God would send somebody by because I needed to make this sale”. And he began to talk about all the responsilities he had and why he needed money from the sale.
Almost two hundred thousand miles later this car has only let me down once that I remember. When my son was in college I gave it to him to get back and forth to school and when he graduated and decided that he wanted a new car, he gave it back to me. I took it, fixed it up and it has taken me everywhere I needed to go as well as to some places I wanted to go. It has taken me on about 20 ski trips to Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, several trips to cart the children off to college, sabbatical trips to get away and clear the cobwebs out of our heads and when I looked out the window this morning, the old car seemed to be saying to me, “I’m ready when you are ready.”. Even during the few times when I mistreated and neglected the car, it has still been faithful.
Hence, a few weeks weeks ago I was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were as faithful to each other as my car has been to me?”
God bless.
Life Step Ministries 
Now my choice is to go out and cut the grass or respond to this topic. You have mastered the art of the “nugget”. The nugget was originally intended to be an appetizer. I am finding that, just like at the fast food restaurants, that the appetizer has become the main course sometimes. Now what does that have to do with Old Faithful. I have found myself dreaming things lately and remembering what I dreamed about when I awaken. I am continually thinking about things that have connection and alignment.
So you may remember me talking to you about certain “church words” that so many of us trivialize. Faith is one of those words. Many of us have totally looked over the word “faithful”. So I was dreaming about a situation where I was trying to get someone to talk to someone about keeping the faith. The song playing in the background was “Hold On” by the Chicago Mass Choir. My methodology (even while dreaming) is to assess where the person is currently and to try to get them where they need to be.
So I went way back to when we rode buses everywhere (before we called it public transportation). How many times have we been at the stop waiting for that bus and the bus had not arrived? There was a perception that there was an actual schedule, but it was late. At the same time we waited for that bus with full expectation that it would arrive. And you know that some time during the seventies someone recorded a song called “The Bus Is Coming”. Well, my challenge to us is that if we can have faith in the bus then we can believe that God’s promises will come true. We can believe that Jesus will return and that redemption draweth nigh.
Old Faithful never let you down. Because of that, you were able to call it Old Faithful. Now days, we tend to frown if someone brings up the word “Old” and can’t hear the “Faithful” part. If you listen to so many of the songs that are out now, they almost seem like catch phrases. Your message today can cause so many of us to slow down a bit and remember those little things like old school, old memories, old recipes, old habits, old lessons, and old blessings that kept us this far.
By Carrington Smith
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I am glad that you opted to respond instead of cutting thte grass or I would have missed this jewel. Yes we need to slow down and remember things that seem little like old school, old memories, old recipes. Those are the things that got us through.
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