Unto Dust
Seeing a fine car abandoned and neglected strikes anguish in the hearts of car folks. Look at the lost potential. Weep at the missed opportunities. It should be on the road, or caressed by a professional detailer, or gliding across a manicured lawn for some Councours d’Elegance.
Hidden within this remorse is a hint of selfish desire: I could be driving it on the road, caressing its flanks, displaying it proudly.
Yes, sparing this fine machine from neglect is indeed good for the car, car culture, and you. God feels similarly about his people. In Psalm 30, a song praising God’s powerful works of healing and restoration, David determines that while his decay and death are not beneficial to anyone, being saved would be quite good for him and would also benefit God:
“What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?” (Psalm 30:9)
Ever notice how David has this way of trying to ingratiate himself into God’s will? Does his praise come across as cloying? Nevertheless, he has a point. Some of the most beloved works of praise and proclamation came from David, who was close to death far too often. God saved him, over and over again, which benefited David in the immediate sense and has benefited other believers – especially ones crying out to God – for millennia.
Take a moment and consider if the same is true for all of God’s people. God restored and redeemed you out of his infinite love and mercy, but also in accordance with his almighty will. You are alive for a reason. The ideas, compassion, inventions, and strategies in your brain will be dust within decades, or perhaps much sooner. What gain are they to anyone if they go to the grave with you? How will your generous heart serve a broken and needy world if you don’t let it act while it still beats within your body?
God always accomplishes his will, whether through you or someone else or some other group of people. Just like someone shopping for a pre-owned Rolls Royce will find what they want, whether it’s the car in the junkyard, the car barely saved from the junkyard, or something meticulously maintained in a showroom. But God has a specific plan for you, the you who’s alive today and reading this encouragement at this exact moment. It’s a specific plan, built around the specific you that you are. Each person contains a million libraries’ worth of unique thoughts, abilities, and passions. God rejoices when he sees each one wake up, step up, and change the world in their own special way.
Fun fact: In 1979, the American market exactly two convertibles that had four seats: the hideously expensive Rolls Royce Camargue and the Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. These days, Rolls Royce sedans from that era aren’t worth much money (unless you’re trying to restore one, which can be ludicrously expensive). Plenty are currently decaying, slowly, with each day passing by like grains of sand in an hourglass…
John V16 is the intersection of God and cars. Please support our work and donate a V16-powered 1940 Cadillac Series 90 Sixteen to John V16. Or share this article with a friend.
