SPIRITUAL MAINTENANCE
One
millwright said, “I pray when I cannot take care of it myself, saving my
prayers for things I cannot do… God expects us to …” But, a pipefitter quickly
retorted, “There is such a thing as “PM prayer…” For some forgotten reason, the discussion in
our break-time crew meeting turned to prayer.
(for any non-maintenance folks, “PM” is not a reference to time of day,
but to plant-maintenance theory. There
is the RTF (run to failure) approach. “If
it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is the mantra here. Then there is also the PM approach
(preventive maintenance). The PM
approach involves regular inspections and attempts to predict problems and deal
with them before catastrophic failure.
A light
went on in my head! Wow! God is everywhere, even in a nasty, cold
break-room full of calloused mechanics.
Out of the heart of this struggler and into mine, came His message – “take
care of my business…” (cf. “feed my sheep”?!)
Spiritual “runnability” and “up-time” are directly affected by good maintenance
theory and practice. One can constantly
run around “putting out fires” or one can plan, inspect, adjust, prepare…
So, “PM-prayer”?! How does this look in real life? “Lord, get my boy off drugs…” could be an
example of a desperate RTF prayer. After
years of neglect and inattention, one awakes to find his teenager looking for
purpose and power in pills. “Father,
bless with deep faith and endless hope and undying love, the heart of the child
who will one day meet and marry my little grand-daughter…” is more PM in
nature. And, our daily actions can take
one theme or the other, “fire-fighting” or “fire-prevention”.
On a
personal level, how does one practice PM-spirituality? Words that come to mind are “regular” and “routine”
and “adjustment” and “monitor” and “lubrication” and “inspection” and “prediction”. The idea of “spiritual disciplines” would be
an outgrowth of this approach?!
Scriptural images of this mindset that come to mind are “shepherding”
and “garden/vineyard-tending” and “wise-building”.
RTF-spirituality
is far too common, IMHO. Sure, one can
drive faster and farther if he does not stop to buy fuel. And, oil-changes can be skipped, for a
while. But, on the side of the road, he
will watch the wise driver wave as he passes by. (perhaps, he will stop to help the poor
fool?) Remember the five wise and five foolish
virgins?! And, be thankful you are
driving, not flying.
