Rust

   Living in Canada poses a few problems to daily living.  The snow and ice that plague our country from December until March must be combated in order for us to navigate the roads.  This involves, sanding, salting and applying chemicals to the road to alter the melting point of the snow.   I am grateful for the diligence of our cities and regions in making these applications which ensures our safe passage on roads.  

   The down side of salting is that our vehicles require some extra maintenance and care to survive the assault of salt on them.   Without extra winter time washes and preventative oil spraying of the underside of our vehicles we would all be driving around in rusted out vehicles. 
Besides not being pretty, rust is dangerous if left unattended.    It can rot lines, damage springs, corrode connections and make a vehicle quite un-drivable.  We may only see a little rust on the body of the vehicle, but the underside may have quite extensive rust damage. Ultimately rustiness will greatly shorten the useful life of a vehicle.
Today I was reading at quote from Charles Spurgeon: "let not your abilities rust or your influence be unused."  How appropriate that we too can become rusty.   Lack of practice, perseverance or preventative maintenance can lead to corrosion of ability and usefulness.  Our  positive impact or radiance for Christ can be corroded.   We may in fact become quite marred simply because we have neglected to wash off and protect ourselves from the corrosion of the world.  Regular maintenance is the key to corrosion free living.  Then we retain our sparkle and our reliability.