Leaf Springs
Chevrolet created the classic, black-and-white, educational film “Suspension Harmony” in the 1930s to introduce its new coil-spring suspension. Most of the film actually addresses the leaf spring suspension’s shortcomings to vehicular dynamics as a foil to the superior new technology of coil springs. Today, it’s a tidy recap of leaf springs and their strengths and shortcomings.
Leaf springs work best when they work together, obviously. This is true for each stack of springs damping the bumps and vibrations from a particular wheel, but also the two sets affecting the same axle, but also all four sets of springs affecting the whole car. Before the days of independent suspension, the entire front half and the entire rear half of a car moved together, and if their spring stiffness wasn’t aligned, the car would pitch and vibrate and bounce unevenly.
Since leaf springs are literally bound together, they might as well get along and work together. The same is true for Christ-followers. One of the best examples of this comes from the book of Ruth. At the beginning of the story, Ruth chooses to share the burden of Naomi, her mother-in-law. “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16-17)
Without Ruth, Naomi was a childless widow. She didn’t have the social safety net we have today, so she had few legal or financial options. She would have been like a single leaf spring bearing unnecessary weight – through no fault of her own. She would have been broken. When Ruth bound herself to Naomi, their load capacity doubled. They were still fully compressed by tons of pressure, but they were working together.
Ruth started working in the field of Boaz. He was Naomi’s distant relative, and would eventually help them in a significant way, but Ruth didn’t know any of that. She needed Naomi’s bloodline to be related to Boaz, and she needed Naomi’s information about Boaz to know that he was a good person to talk to.
After Ruth worked in his field, Boaz chose to share the burden of Ruth and Naomi. He satisfied their immediate needs for nutrition and employment, and later he advocated and interceded for them within the legal system to take care of their societal and legal needs. He bound himself to them, sharing their burden, and brought them into harmony with the movement of the societal and legal rhythm of the times.
The book of Ruth shows how God’s people are supposed to work together. We all feel flattened sometimes. It’s a fact of life that we all carry some kind of weight, and face some bumps in the road. Since we all go through it, why don’t we talk about it? Why don’t we look for opportunities to bind ourselves to a brother or sister who can help carry part of the load?
When Christ-followers suffer alone with a burden we’re supposed to share, we feel broken. When we don’t burden ourselves with someone else’s pain, we operate outside of the harmony God intended for His people. A single leaf spring bears some burden and shares some burden. Do you do both? Either? Sometimes, Christ-followers try to be a super-strong leaf spring that operates by itself. Or we expect other leaf springs to get stronger so they can deal with their own weight. Or we don’t concern ourselves with those leaf springs on the other side of the car, because they don’t affect us over here.
Think of the joy that Boaz had by helping his distant relatives, or that Naomi had by feeling so full of life at the end of the story. God works through those interactions, and we miss out on that when we think we’re “fully independent” suspension.
Through the story of Ruth, God’s redemption is shown. We can meet some of the physical and legal needs of people around us, but only God can redeem us and restore us. He puts people in our lives to help manage our burdens, but they can’t fully take them away. Only God does that.
When introducing its more advanced, independent, coil-spring suspension, Chevrolet listed benefit after benefit that the driver could expect. A smoother ride, better control, and safety during a blowout. They saved the most important for last: “With less strain, every part of the car lasts longer and operates more smoothly.” Less jolting and vibration extends the life of any part connected to the suspension. The life of the car increases. Fewer parts will rattle themselves apart and fall off. Just by bringing the suspension into harmony with itself, the whole car can move forward the way it’s supposed to.
