When "Bad News" is Not Really Bad News

Earlier this week my daughter called me and told me her car was acting strange. When she told me what it was doing, I knew she had a problem with the transmission. I told her that she might be able to change the fluid and filter and that might take care of the problem, but I knew that odds were that she had a bigger problem on her hands. I have a brother-in-law who is a mechanic in the area so I told her to call him. She took the car there and the next day she got the news that it was, in fact, a bigger problem. She was sickened by the amount, even though she was getting a break on the cost. No one likes that kind of news, of course. No one likes being told that repairs on their car are going to cost them a large amount of money. My daughter was very frustrated and venting her stress to me when I told her that it could have been more than twice as much as it is going to cost and that she should be grateful that it was something that could be repaired. After we hung up, I was thinking about all this and a thought hit me. When your mechanic gives you a large estimate and news of a major repair that must be done, his news is not so that you can quit driving, rather, it is so that you can get the most out of your car and drive it for years to come at its best performance. Likewise, when your pastor brings a message in a sermon that is difficult and somewhat heavy to wrestle with, he's not trying to drive you out of the church and cause you to stop serving God. No, he is trying to help you make corrections in your walk with God so that you will be working at your highest performance level and get the most out of your life, both for your enjoyment and for your work for the Lord.