A few years ago we had a new kitchen fitted and the sink unit came supplied complete with a dish drainer. This drainer was metal coated in white plastic and for quite a long time looked as good as the day we first had it. However, by and by, one day a small crack in the coating appeared then several more. Then rust began to appear along the cracks until recently it became impossible to wipe without pieces falling off. Time for a new one! Fast forward and we now have a brand new one, stainless steel to make sure that it will not just do the job but last. We could have had a cheap chrome one for £3.49 but definitely inferior quality and durability. My father always used that well known phrase, “you get what you pay for”. There is also another saying, “buy cheap buy twice”.

The funniest example I have seen (twice) of an article falling to pieces has been when somebody has sat in a deck chair and gone clean through the fabric finishing up bottom on the floor thighs upwards. On both occasions the people involved have had to be helped up by others close by, all concerned convulsed with laughter and no harm done save perhaps mild embarrassment of the fallen ones.

Falling to pieces. I wonder whether that is what happens to some people’s spiritual life. Most of us know people who have not just stopped going to church but gone back to living according to the world’s standard. Does it gradually fall to pieces? A missed service, another and another. Missed quiet times, bible study, prayer times then more and then they stop. Perhaps some marriages fail in the same way, a piece at a time until it seems beyond repair. Other relationships can be like that too. If we know Christ then we have someone to turn to, someone who will help us pick up the pieces and put his quality into our lives. The request of David in Psalm 51:10 comes to mind, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me”.  I know one thing, I don’t want to be like my old rusty drainer and I hope you don’t either.

Pam