Regular, mid-grade or high test?

Do you remember the opening lines to “Mission Impossible”?  They went something like this “You have been chosen for (whatever) mission, should you choose to accept…..”  This was the thought I had this morning when I read Psalm 67:2 “that your ways may be known on earth”.

It is my belief that the only way God’s ways are known on earth is for those who have sensitivity for Him to actively walk as beacons of light.  Those that have a heart for God are those He has chosen, but before you get you knickers in a knot, He has chosen all of us, it is just that some of us, like in the Mission Impossible statement, haven’t accepted the assignment!

Maybe I need to be sleeping longer….because then my next thought segued into Exxon gas.  There is a sign at our local gas station that says cars or autos (can’t remember which) crave clean.  This sets all sorts of tangent possibilities up for me.  I’ll try to be succinct.

First one – the whole idea of craving, I’ve mentioned before.  We have this “hole” inside of us, created by God, which longs to be filled up.  We try to fill it up with many different things and everything is found lacking in either substance or quantity/quality and the hole then begins demanding to be refilled.  God created that space to be filled by Him and only Him.

Secondly, the clean aspect.  In another book, “Come away my beloved” it mentioned that Jesus’ body never knew a malady because His soul didn’t know sin.  Our bodies are seemingly always breaking down and revealing what our souls possess.  It went on to say that it is only when our minds are at rest that our bodies can build health.  Some people “abuse” their bodies with unhealthy choices, and those of us who don’t aspire to those types of choices roll our eyes in disdain at them. The thing is, our minds might be embroiled in negativity (anxiety etc) and that still wreaks havoc on our bodies, and even if we aren’t doing unhealthy activities we are still getting sick.  

 

This brings me to another aspect of clean and back to gas…..the ethanol kind!  At our local pump there are 3 types of gas – regular, mid-grade and high test.  The car I drive wants the high test, but I can only afford the regular!  So what’s the difference and I’m going to elaborate loosely here.

Regular – the “cheap?” stuff is just the stuff that allows the car to motor around.  It provides fuel/energy.  Mid-grade has had some of the impurities taken out and maybe a bit more fuel injectors added in.  The car runs a bit more efficiently and actually gets better mileage.  The high test – man that is like the super caffeinated variety, it’s got energy plus and the junk has been siphoned out.  Your car can run better, go farther, jump higher.  Ok, not jump but you get the idea.

So what does gas have to do with me?  No, no beans were included in my dinner last night…..Think of the gas pumps being God’s energy pumps for us.  Regular is what most people have in their life.  They are just motoring around, without any real regard to God.  They may know about Him, but aren’t really interested.  They get by and seem happy in their lives thinking they don’t need a better grade of energy and definitely not wanting to pay extra for it.

Mid-grade is probably where I was up to a few years ago.  I was allowing God to be part of my life, when it was convenient.  I tried to do good things and I occasionally read a chapter in my Bible, but when something else came up, I would run after it.  This cost a little more, but it also seemed to have a bit more benefit than the regular.  I could control the cost of it though by choosing when I might allow my tanks to be filled with this grade of gas.

High test is what I’m using now.  Interesting choice of the name of this grade of gas, because and I really do mean this, once you come up to this grade you are seemingly tested more, but and that is a big BUT (not like mine – sorry)…with the testing you are also given God’s grace freely and you are NEVER alone in the tests you face.  You run cleaner, you run farther and you run most proficiently.  Of course high test also costs more, but you get what you pay for in life!  This is where you agree to seemingly allow God to “choose” you for that mission He has planned for your life.  You agree to the assignment, completely buying into its premise.  You don’t look back, you look ahead seeing the possibilities and you become a beacon of light.  This is how I believe God’s ways become known on earth and if everyone took that same thought and we’d multiply it by the number of people in the world, then the last part of that verse “Your salvation among all nations” would be able to be accomplished.

I wish I could be a fly on the pump the next time you choose your grade of gas!

Looking up! ~ Barb