Look Above, Where Christ Is ... Even if Your Car isn't Running

These past few weeks have caused one trial after another but ...

Aug 03, 2025

Upset man looking under hood of car — Photo by Mart Production, Pexels

For another look at Colossians 3:1-4, read my short story The Shattered Teacup

Colossians 3:1-4

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

I’m continually amazed at Paul’s understanding at what I call life after life, or as we often say, life after death.

After his conversion from Saul to Paul, the apostle was given the world-changing task of sharing Christ with the Gentiles which caused conflict with nearly everyone around him.

Why?

The Jews had the law.

Jews who believed in Christ as the Messiah demanded that Gentile Christians follow the same traditions like being circumcised.

The Romans and Greeks had their many gods.

Life must have often looked impossible for Paul who was beaten, shipwrecked, jailed, and debated. And others were jealous of him (2 Corinthians 11:25).

Paul set “his mind on things above” because he knew that he would live with Christ forever and he saw earthly problems as minor in comparison.

He knew his destination as he wrote in Timothy, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Needing a tow

I’ve mulled over setting my mind on things above during recent weeks that have worn me out.

A week ago on Saturday, my wife Cindy drove to visit a 14-year-old girl in San Bernardino who we treat as a granddaughter. Her dad is in jail and may receive a lengthy sentence based on various strikes.

On her way back late afternoon, the alternator went out in Rancho Cucamonga, about 35 miles from our house. Our Mazada CX-9 is Cindy’s favorite but it’s a 2011 with 180,000 miles and has run perfectly until now, so a breakdown was imminent.

She needed a tow.

We’ve got AAA (and roadside assistance through our insurance) and she got to the mechanic and I stopped whatever it was I was doing and drove 45 minutes to pick her up.

Then in mid-week, I had to get the car. So I took a train in the evening where our daughter-in-law who lives in Rancho picked me up and drove me to the shop.

I paid for the alternator replacement and a few belts and headed home.

After buzzing along the freeway for about 40 minutes, I turned up the avenue toward our house and the car started losing power. It died about a mile from home. I called AAA and my phone’s battery went out. Done.

I walked a mile home at about 9:30, called AAA, and that kicked off a series of time-consuming events from that night to early the next afternoon:

Meeting the tow truck driver that night who took the car to our mechanic
Our mechanic telling me the next morning he couldn’t work on the car because he was slammed
Making calls to confirm the alternator was under warranty
Getting the car to another mechanic who could honor the warranty

The happy ending is that I’ll get to pick up the car early in the week. I can’t help but moan over the time drain.

How do you “set your mind on things above” when you’re stuck in this life?

Rather than answer, I believe there’s an art to serving God and living for Christ.

For Paul, he had to battle through incredible odds and often spoke about God being glorified through his weakness.

We’ll have the inconvenience of cars and appliances breaking down.

Or we may have to suffer through sudden tragedies like the homes burning around us in Altadena this past January or lives swept away, like the heartbreaking floods in central Texas in June.

And for the second time this year, 40 Christians have been beheaded in Congo in a province where there’s fight for control. In February, there were 70 who were killed.

Ultimately, no matter how invincible we may think we are, we’re weak.

Setting our mind on things above may lead us into chaos and conflict as it did for Finnian Ebuehui who I wrote about in Finnian’s Swiss Clock Adventure (link below).

Our frailty has meaning

And yet somehow in the frustrations and tragedies God is present and reveals his character.

Pushing forward through trouble and seeing God’s power at work is a principle we see lived out in the Bible.

John the Baptist was beheaded in prison.

The disciple John wrote Revelation during exile.

In the Book of Acts, Stephen was stoned to death and his matrydom must have had a profound impact on Paul who faced life-threatening challenges.

God’s view, Our view

God knows what we don’t know.

He had compassion on creatures like the “five sparrows sold for two copper coins. Yet, God doesn’t forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” Luke 12: 6,7.

He sees what we can’t see.

“You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12: 22,23).

If life is treating you like you’re running a car that’s broken down remember that the “testing of our faith produces perseverance” so we can become “mature and complete, not lacking anything” James 1:3,4.

We set our mind on things above, not to escape the problems surrounding us but knowing that we have hope in the riches of God’s kingdom waiting for us. And it’s in the mundane testings that we can shine and point others to Christ’s truth.

Now, if only I can remember that the next time my car breaks down.