Like my computer and my car. I am pretty sure that over the last year, I’ve spent about as much on each item in repairs as the item originally cost. And then my computer has been giving me problems lately, and so I ran a diagnostic test that I found online, and apparently my hard drive has a bunch of errors. It’s like my computer knows that I’m a college student and need my laptop for schoolwork, so it breaks on me. I’m convinced it’s all a conspiracy to suck the money right out of my bank account. I just wish I could go at least 6 months without a problem from either of these things.

This all brings up a good point though. A lot of times in life we think that there is only a one time cost for things, and we don’t realize that the greatest costs often occur in maintenance making sure what we “spent” on will hold up. I notice this with relationships especially. In the days when I was a kid, relationships were easy because you could always see your friends at school and so you didn’t have to be so intentional about trying to make time for them. And so it takes a lot more work than it used to. You have to make sure to set aside time to be around these people, and hang out with them. There’s no longer school to spend time with your friends. And so relationships take a lot of maintenance and work, long after the first time you entered that relationship.

The moral I guess is that things that last in life take constant work and maintenance. It’s not a one time effort. This applies to everything, from our relationship with God, to the relationships with our friends, to making sure that our cars and computers last as long as they can.