Maintenance

A house and yard require a lot of time, money, and effort to keep up satisfactory appearance and function. We have to water the lawn, weed the flower beds, replace the cracked window glass, paint the fence, clean the gutters. And even if someone else cares for the outside of our apartment or townhome, inside we have to wax the floors, change the out-of-reach light bulbs, tighten hinges, and repair leaky faucets. This is “maintenance;” its purpose is to keep things at home comfortable and efficient.

We’re familiar with body maintenance too, either performing it or recognizing that we should be! We brush our teeth and visit the dentist, we walk or swim or work out at the gym, we eat our vegetables.

But there is another area that needs maintenance too: the interior life. Like icebergs the volume of which is typically nine-tenths below the surface, most of our personhood is not visible to the eye. The emotional side of our being requires attention too. Our thought-habits (attitudes)—are they negative, tending to perceive flaws in other folks, always finding the unhappy parts of a situation? Are we hindered by resentments or frustrations we’ve let simmer for a long time, by a pervasive sense of unworthiness or self-doubt, or by long-held prejudices? It may be hard work, but it’s time to maintain this area.

What of our mental processes? Have we stopped growing and learning? Then we will have to find something that stimulates new thoughts. We can read outside our usual genre, talk with someone who thinks differently than we do, attempt a new project. We can go somewhere we’ve never been, maybe the nearby “touristy” place we’ve always meant to visit, or even just a new restaurant. School children need “field trips” in order to see and learn and be challenged. So do we.

We need to take care of our souls. A part of us needs beauty, and growing things, and music, creative work, and friendship. Perhaps not everyone will agree, but I am convinced that we retain enough of God’s likeness that we are meant to enjoy what He enjoys. He made beautiful things even before He made us, a universe that He pronounced “very good.” He planted a garden—planted it, notice, not spoke it into existence. Music was God’s invention; when He laid the earth’s foundation, the morning stars sang together and the angels shouted for joy. We have only to view sunsets or ocean waves, or watch babies learn to walk, to recognize the on-going, infinite creativity of God. And as for friendship, the Triune God already had “community” in Himself but chose to take evening walks in the garden with His newly-formed friends.

One more area to tend to: our spiritual beings. The Church has for centuries encouraged disciplines that are useful in developing the inner life. (If the word “discipline” is off-putting, we can think of them as spiritual muscle-toners, not all that different from Pilates for the body and mind.) Some of these exercises are worship, prayer, reading the Scriptures, fellowship, giving, service, and so on; there are a great many. We need to find the ones that nourish our spirits, and these will not be the same for everyone.

To repeat: Maintenance of a house and yard requires a lot of time, money, and effort. But give special care to that crucial part of your life that the neighbors cannot see and that doesn’t make strange noises when it stops working.

MaryMartha
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