Years ago I owned an old pickup truck. The worm gear in the steering box was so worn that when driving, you had to continually steer from left to right just to drive in a straight line. It drove all right, you just had to stay on top of it and make continual corrections.

The brakes worked ok too, as long as you pumped them up a cou-ple of times before you really needed them. Otherwise, you might end up pushing the pedal nearly to the floor just to slow down a little.

She had a three-speed transmission, but you had to remember to pump the clutch once between first and second gear to get all the way into second. If you didn’t, sometimes it would pop back out of gear if you managed to get it in at all.

I can’t tell you how many people borrowed that truck. Each time, of course, I would have to brief them on all of its idiosyncrasies. No matter. It always got the job done.

As I think about it now, I suppose that each of us is a little like that truck. We have things that are wrong with us. It comes naturally with living in a body of flesh that is constantly making demands and wanting to be accommodated against our better judgment.

Not only do we live in a weak, fleshly, demanding body, but we have been brought up in an environment saturated with sinful behaviors, lies and misconceptions. With all of the twisted behaviors and ungodly ideas to which we were exposed it is a wonder that any of us turned out anywhere close to normal in the first place.

But that’s just it. None of us are normal, if we understand God’s view of “normal”. Normal is what Adam and Eve were before they ate the fruit that gave them the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-19). Through Jesus, God is in the process of return-ing us to that first state of normality and relationship with Him.

Until then, however, we live by faith while bearing our own personal set of idiosyncrasies. Were you abused in your youth, sexually, physically, verbally or emotionally? Were you humiliated by others because you were homely, chubby, too tall, too short, from the country or the city, wear glasses, bad at sports, black, white or some other unpopular color? Or perhaps your particular trouble is that your folks were rich, or you were pretty, talented or smart and thereby developed an inordinate sense of your own importance or superiority?

Facing the realities of our individual conditions is not pleasant. As one comedian put it, “I don’t have an inferiority complex; I really am inferior!”.

But never, never, never give up. Yes, your life and your decisions have shaped you imperfectly, but Jesus can reshape you into someone useful and productive.

…..our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to

redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for

His own possession, zealous of good deeds. Titus 2:13-14