Let me start by making an assumption, one that is reasonably informed, I’d argue. More than occasionally you get from point A to point B by means other than walking. Nothing wrong with walking. It’s gotten some pretty decent reviews on Yelp recently. I’m going to go out on a limb by declaring that it is probably the most common mode of getting from here to there. If “here” is your house and “there” is your mailbox, walking is great. If “here” is anywhere in the southeast during summer, and “there” is the Piggly Wiggly more than a couple hundred yards away, walking is no bueno, as we like to say in the transportation industry. Alternatively, you’ll ride, drive, or pedal in or on a vehicle assembled from a collection of parts or components. Some of these parts are inexpensive. Others are priced to suggest they are made out of unobtainium mined in a distant galaxy. The Law Of Inverse Automotive Physics states that the cheaper a part is, the harder it is to get to, necessitating hours of very expensive labor at the local repair shop. Or to do it yourself, you’d need to buy a bunch of specialized tools that will not nor cannot be used for any other application. And the day after you sell them on craigslist for pennies on the dollar, your neighbor will ask to borrow them.
“Hey Biff, do you still have that angled grommet deburring caliper adjustment widget?”
“Should’ve asked me yesterday, Gordie. I just got rid of it.”
Most of us are familiar with the old adage, bromide, anecdote, or whatever, about the lack of a nail in a horse’s shoe. It goes, “For lack of a nail, the shoe was lost. For lack of a shoe, the horse didn’t want to be seen in public by the bourgeois horses in the adjoining meadow, and was subsequently lost. For lack of a horse, the rider was forced to walk. He subsequently got tired and took a nap. For lack of a rider, a bunch of other stuff happened, including a violent coup d’état.” Random thought: Whatever happened to the d’état part of a coup?
My wife and I were reminded recently of the importance, or value, of a $30 part while on vacation, the very part in the photo at the top of the page. It is a crankshaft position sensor, as if you didn’t already know that. This sensor failed right before we were going to drive up Pike’s Peak in Colorado. The failure of this $30 part caused the vehicle to quit running. Because I couldn’t convince my wife to help me push the SUV up the 14,000 feet of elevation, our plans to see the summit were scuttled. Through the grace of God and answered prayer, we met Kiera, who connected us to Eric, who diagnosed the problem and replaced the $30 part. We drove another 1,500 miles or so without a problem.
The solution or breakthrough we seek may be dependent on what we may deem insignificant, either in terms of effort, resources, or a human agent. To others, we may be the $30 part someone desperately needs, figuratively speaking.
Are we missing out on what the Lord wants to do in or through our lives, simply because we tend to minimize the value or importance of what we consider too simple or too common?
(Click “Stand on Firmer Ground” for a deeper look into $30 Part)