The Danger of a Slow Leak

It’s hard to believe that something so tiny can cause so much trouble.

I had just dropped my daughter off at school, when my cell phone rang. I mean, I wasn’t even out of the high school parking lot. I knew it was my daughter because she has her own ring tone. I quickly answered and she informed me that the girl riding in the car behind us told her that one of my back tires was almost flat. Fabulous!

I drove really slowly all the way home. I hadn’t had a shower yet. No way was I going to the tire place looking like I did. Now my mama is enjoying a little snicker as she reads this, because she has always refused to leave home without her makeup on, even if it meant getting up at 5:00 AM. I, alas, haven’t followed in her footsteps.

When I got home, it looked pretty low. I was really kicking myself at this point because I knew it looked low, like a week ago, but I kind of ignored it. I hadn’t had time to get to the tire place and the car was running just fine, so I put it out of my mind. Therein lies the danger of the slow leak. If you have a flat, you have to stop the car immediately and have it fixed, but the slow leak lets you keep driving, deflating a little bit at the time and putting you in danger. It may just be flat when you go to jump in when you are running late or worse, have an emergency. But, it also weakens the tire and sets you up for a blow out which can be catastrophic.

I know this, yet I drove on it anyway. Luckily, a teenager of all people, pointed out that I could wait no longer and I took it in. They fixed it. It was a tiny screw, but that tiny screw made me late to an appointment.

All day long, I pondered the dangers of slow leaks in our lives. They are just as dangerous as the one in the tire. When we get little leaks in our marriages or other relationships, we often ignore them because we are too busy. Like the tire, we know we should address the issue, but we don’t and they always get worse.

It’s the same way with health issues. We can know that something is wrong with us physically, but we ignore it. We just don’t have time to see a doctor or to make an effort to exercise or lose weight or eat better. But, in the history of leaking tires or relationships or serious physical issues, I’ve never heard of a leak spontaneously plugging itself. Nope, that job falls to us, the procrastinators.

Our spiritual lives are the same. We can know that we feel far from God, but ignore it. We can know that we need to be in serious prayer about something, but we don’t make the time. We can know that we should attend church regularly instead of a couple of times a month, but sleep in instead. We can know that the Bible is God’s word, but just can’t seem to make the time to read it. All of those things are slow leaks. They can be easily repaired early on or we can wait for a blowout.

Blowouts are scary and dangerous. They are often recoverable, but why take the chance? I’ve decided to be more vigilant about slow leaks in my tires and my life. Care to join me?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂