Losing time

    Yesterday, I made a decision to swap the tires myself to save money. With that approach in life, one can save money but it is not necessarily convenient. There's an effort involved and the efficient use of time might be compromised. As I picked up the third wheel I noticed a nail stuck in the rubber. With limited knowledge regarding tires and wheels, I concluded that this was something major and it became my top priority within the day to fix it and bring it to Canadian Tire. I attempted to contact my father to hear his guidance but didn't get sufficient information to move my life forward.

    As I carry the wheel to put it in the back seat I thought of bringing also the last one but didn’t bring it. Upon arriving at Canadian Tire and speaking with the mechanic, he removed the nail and told me that my car is still fine to drive. I asked him to clarify that having a nail in your wheel does not necessarily means repairing or changing your tires. It is on a case-to-case basis. Then I told him if he could just swap my winter tires for the all-season ones. After our conversation, I was able to talk with my father on the phone who recommended that I should’ve brought the last wheel so that the mechanic would also swap it with the previous tire. That would be more convenient instead of my own way of the convenience of approaching this matter.

    I went back home to swap the last tire but another dilemma occurred. After almost half an hour of trying to loosen the knot even applying WD-40, I broke the first stud. I attempted to catch Canadian Tire before it closes. I reached it but there were no mechanics available. The next day, Thursday I quickly tried looking for a car mechanic nearby, then I found Mr. Lube at 9 am. They checked my wheels and had already ordered the stud and tried to fix it. At around 10:21 am they told me that they had to order again because they got the wrong kind for my car. I returned back to Mr. Lube after my 11 am - 5 pm shift from Goodlife for them to fix my car.

    At the end of the day, I realized because of my own view and approach to being more convenient in life it becomes more inconvenient for me. If I could’ve waited and sought my father’s guidance I would have had a better approach to this situation. My own perception of convenience led to a wrong result because my mind is limited. “Following Jesus is a decision with your heart not on your mind, [it is] based on conviction not on convenience.”1 If we follow Jesus based on our own feeling, thinking, analysis, and perception of convenience we could be inconsistent with our relationship with him. We just want to have feelings of happiness, blessings, and prosperity in life if convenience is our basis. “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”2 (John 6:66) Not even Jesus’ disciples followed him to the very end. The integrity of their conviction is compromised. Decisions based on convenience usually fall short even when testing and trials come.

Footnotes:
1 Cunanan, Fer, Designed for relationships: Week 3. Sermon at ENCM/S, North York, ON,  April 9, 2023'

2 Biblegateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206%3A66&version=NIV (Accessed April 16, 2023)