I had to fix the brakes on my wife’s van yesterday.\u00a0 I didn’t want to do it.\u00a0 It was a lousy job to come home to after a full Monday at the office, but the brakes were making a noise so I decided I better look at them.\u00a0\u00a0 Bad brakes and mountain driving are not a safe combination.<\/p>\n
After dinner, there was a struggle to get the jack in place, a fight with lug nuts that involved a hammer and a breaker bar, and calipers that were at times downright uncooperative.\u00a0 The last rays of daylight were slipping away as Tammy pointed a pathetic excuse for a flashlight at the brake master cylinder.\u00a0\u00a0 The lid came off easily enough, but I think it took us 15 minutes to get it back on.\u00a0 Now there was just the test drive left to do.\u00a0 Tammy carefully started off, disappeared up the street, then came back smiling.\u00a0 The brakes were working perfectly.<\/p>\n
As the old pads (worn almost to the metal) were tossed in the trash, I began to have that feeling of statisfaction that comes from a job well done.\u00a0\u00a0 It is odd how that works, this inverse relationship.\u00a0 The more you don’t want to do a thing, the more happy you are when it is done.\u00a0 The more difficult the job, the more relieved you are when it is completed.\u00a0 The more you dread the start, the greater joy you have at the finish.<\/p>\n
Imagine a day over two thousand years ago, and One who had the most difficult task of all.\u00a0 As the pain and struggles from that long day ended, He declared, “It is finished.”\u00a0 Then came the joy.\u00a0 Perfect joy.\u00a0 Heavenly joy.\u00a0 Unimaginable joy.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,\u00a0looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy<\/strong> that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. I had to fix the brakes on my wife’s van yesterday.\u00a0 I didn’t want to do it.\u00a0 It was a lousy job to come home to after a full Monday at the office, but the brakes were making a noise so I decided I better look at them.\u00a0\u00a0 Bad brakes and mountain driving are not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFor consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0– \u00a0Hebrews 12:1-3\u00a0\u00a0 NKJV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"