Hebrews 11:39 & 40 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us…

Every day I heat up this car and never get any benefit out of it at all!”

This is what my oldest son Josh told me this morning as he exited the still-fridged car at 6:59 AM to enter the campus of Stonewall Jackson High School. He’s absolutely right, but let me explain. 

Josh and I have our early morning routine pretty much down to the second. For Josh it looks something like this: get up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, briefly check Facebook or read a devotional thought, snatch a packed lunch from mom’s outstretched hand while simultaneously slinging his backpack over his shoulder and heading out the front door. With a few exceptions, my routine is similar. It’s lean, mean and honed to the second. It doesn’t include much time for warming up the car or scraping the windshield.

So, this winter we’ve been pretty lucky. It’s been relatively warm and there hasn’t been much frost or snow. Of course, things are trending colder these past few weeks and this morning it was 18 degrees with a thick layer of frost covering all surfaces. When it’s cold like that, I immediately start the car, ramp up the defroster and in the morning darkness we both scraped the windows and windshield in a frenzy and drop panting into the front seat for the 8 minute 30 second drive to school. 

Well, this creates a new problem. My little Nissan Versa is a great car but for whatever reason the defroster is way underpowered. So as we hurriedly get into the car and drive off our breath instantly begins freezing on the inside of the windshield. Josh then spends half the trip scraping the inside of the windshield while I erratically drive with my head out the side window or peaking through the very bottom of the windshield where the defroster has actually begun to work. Half way to school the windshield is finally clear but the car is just beginning to crank out warm air by the time we hit the SJHS parking lot.

“Every day I heat up this car and never get any benefit out of it at all!” he said. 

To my credit, I resisted the urge to say “welcome to the real world” or “sounds like parenting to me” or “funny, it’s plenty warm after you get out,” or some other cynical remark. But his heart expressed a theme that all of us can identify with.

For defrosting the car it’s an easy fix: get out there 5 minutes earlier and start the car. But for the rest of life it’s not always that simple. 

I keep pouring into these kids/grand kids but they keep making poor choices and I never get a word of thanks… I’m doing all the right things at my job and I keep getting passed over for that promotion… I’m keeping myself pure and waiting for God’s best but I can’t seem to find someone special to share my life with… OR I’m doing what is right and it seems like even my family is against me!

All of us can conjure up plenty of examples where our efforts are not yielding immediate benefit to us. It can be lonely and discouraging. But in some ways, this too is the walk of faith- to continue to follow the way of Jesus even when we experience no tangible benefit this side of heaven. To be shaped by the attitudes and values of God’s kingdom even when it would be easier or work to our advantage to respond in the flesh. In the end, a believer doesn’t make a decision because it makes sense, will benefit them or is even the “smart” thing to do. We make our decisions because we know and follow Jesus Christ and he has told us to follow in his way.

So, continue walking by faith. The enemy will tell you that it isn’t worth it and that you should give up. But the rewards of knowing and following Jesus extend far beyond our current circumstances and God has promised for us something better.