Before Start Checklist
Mary Ann and I have become a one-car family; partly precipitated by the fact that I totaled my new Grand Cherokee. No injuries thankfully. After doing some research, we decided on a new Genesis GV80 SUV as our only car. I expected it would come tricked-out with the latest advancements in driving technology.
I vastly underestimated just how advanced the driver assistance, infotainment, and connected services platforms would be. The vehicle must be operated as much as driven. The process begins before I enter the vehicle. How much before depends upon whether or not I login to the Genesis website and check on the maintenance status, map up-date, start the car, and unlock the doors. When it sees me coming, it configures the mirrors, adjusts the seat, and project the logo onto the driveway to illuminate the path of entry. The front-seat passenger must approach from the front or the rear hatch will open automatically when it senses a key.
When Mary Ann or I sit in the driver seat, it assumes the driving position for the chosen operator. After a few days, I realized I needed a flow-pattern and a checklist to accomplish the before departure tasks. It’s like being back in the A-320 cockpit. Seatbelt shoulder harness fastened, confirm the driver, check all doors, including the garage door- closed and locked. Select the entertainment source from a variety of choices including music or sounds of nature including all the usual spa noises. If a random thought crosses my mind, I can record it onto the on-board memo recorder. If I can’t figure something out, I can press a button on the overhead control panel and a concierge customer service representative answers the Bluetooth enabled phone. Reading up on this stuff is like studying for a check ride.
Nothing I am about to convey is the product of my original thinking; the precepts were taught to me by our teaching pastor at church. They are linked together and are deployed in an expanding sequence that I have taught myself in preparation for, and during, my day. They have become my flow pattern for getting onto the one-day segment of the highway of my life. In a sense, a renewal of my mind:
He has created me, and the works I will be offered were created before the beginning of time. Because I am called for His purpose, He is in ALL things that pertain to me. All means All; no matter how superfluous an all might sound. And, He is for me in these things. How do I know that? Because He gave me His son. Why would He withhold any good thing of lesser value from me.
Like all other men and women, I have my own infirmities of body and soul. I will endure with patience, longsuffering. and trust, those He has not yet chosen to lift from me. In doing so, I am fellowshipping Him in His suffering.
I can expect to be beset by obstacles and attacks from others be they intentional or unintended. When that happens, I will open not my mouth. “When He was insulted, He did not insult in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten in return but rather gave His case to His Heavenly Father who always judges fairly.” I will walk circumspectly to be on the alert for temptations that would have me “compromise with evil.” I will cheerfully share the bounty He has poured out on me so that I will have “excess for every good work.” I will not allow my mind to explore or reinterpret the past now that I have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.
Even with items on my checklist completed, I fully expect to fail miserably, But I have an intercessor who always lives to make intercession for me.
“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Kent
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