The Right Way

Several months ago, towards the beginning of last semester, I hit a trash can with the passenger side mirror of my car and knocked it off. When I pulled over to check things out, my mirror was dangling by the power cords. The plastic part that the bolts go into from inside the door was broken beyond repair. 

I got back in my car and headed to work where I applied a lot of duct tape. It lasted all of, well I don't actually know how long, because it had already fallen off by the time I left work. Over the next day or two, my mom's boyfriend was able to glue it on (after trying two or three glues) so that it was once again functional and in its intended place. Unless one was right next to my car, it looked perfectly fine.

My car and I went the next four or five months with everything going just fine. Then, on the first day of the second semester, I pulled out of my driveway and my mirror just jumped off the car. I promise I didn't hit anything this time!

I knew glue wasn't going to fix it again. So I took the advice of a friend and went to a salvage yard to find a new one. I was able to find one from another car of the exact make and model; the only difference is that this one was white and my car is red. Oh well. I didn't have the right tools with me, but luckily a friend lives right around the corner and was able to come assist me and get the mirror off of the salvage yard car.

I came home and was determined to switch out the mirrors on my car by myself. Mind you, it took my friend not quite five minutes to take the mirror off the old car at the salvage yard. My experience with tools isn't vast, but this just involved three bolts and I was confident I could accomplish the task. I got my craft power drill set out and went to work.

One bolt came off quite easily. The other two, well they weren't going anywhere. I tried, and tried, and tried and all I accomplished was frustration and making previously unheard horrible noises come from my little hand power drill. I figured my drill must not be strong enough, so I got my mom's regular power drill and tried again. Same result. And the same noises! 

At this point, my mom's boyfriend stopped by and told me that the socket I was using wasn't deep enough. He left and I went in the house to get the heavy duty socket set. I got the right size out, attached it to the big power drill, and went to work. For the third time in a row, nothing.

At this point, I was really frustrated, tired, and ready to quit. But I was also very determined. So I decided to give it one last shot, this time using an old-fashioned socket wrench. I attached it to the appropriate size socket, and guess what? Those two stubborn bolts came off in seconds! After that I was able to take the old mirror off, and pop the new one back on and into place. Once I had the right tool, the whole thing took less than 10 minutes. I once again have a secure and functioning mirror.

That's a nice story, but as soon as I finished I felt like God was trying to remind me of something if I was willing to listen. Obviously, no job can be done without the right tools. I'm still not sure what happened with the power drills, but whatever. But I think there is a deeper lesson. 

Often in our lives, we make mistakes, and instead of taking the time, effort, money, etc. to properly fix it (i.e. the way God tells us to), we just throw some duct tape on it and try to move on. When that doesn't work we might look for other simple solutions (like the various kinds of glue we tried on the mirror until one worked) so we can just move on. In these instances, the focus is on moving on, not properly fixing what is broken. Sometimes these solutions work, depending on the size of the mistake. 

But when significant damage has been done and something is broken beyond measure, or at least seemingly so, more is required. Perhaps it's more time and effort. Time spent rebuilding a relationship and earning back trust. Effort put into seeking God and figuring out why we made the choice we did and letting Holy Spirit teach us how to choose to make better choices in the future. Maybe some kind of restitution is required. Maybe God needs to break us down further so that He can build us back up the way He intended us to be. 

Whatever it is, there is often a more costly, yet correct, way to fix our mistake. Once we do, we might be left with a situation that leaves an obvious repair. When my mirror was held on with glue, it wasn't obvious unless one was right by my car that damage had been done. 

Sometimes the desire behind our duct tape and glue fixes is that we want to hide our brokenness. We don't want others to know that we made a mistake. We think if we can get by with the less costly fix then we can also get by with our perfect persona intact. But again, at least initially, oftentimes the true mark of a solid restoration is obvious. Fence boards that are replaced need time to age like the rest. I have a white mirror on a red car. It is obvious from quite a distance away.

At some point in the future, I'll probably find some touch up paint and paint the mirror so that it's at least close enough that the difference isn't noticeable unless one is looking for it. Given enough time, our mistakes and the following restoration can appear like that too. Relationships that were once destroyed and then gradually put back together are so strong 20 years later that no one would know except for those who had been there for the whole story. Years later one can look on from a place of abundance while remembering a previous financial disaster. 

But for now, I'll think I'll leave the white mirror as a reminder to myself. It might look funny but it does what it's supposed to. Yes, it announces to the world that I made a mistake. To me it announces that I was brave enough to take the steps to fix it the right way. And that's what counts.