A few years ago, a friend of mine recommended a garage to me. Now, keep in mind, I’m a big, strapping, manly guy who knows absolutely diddly-squat about cars. I’ve been ripped off left and right by car mechanics who’ve seen me coming, and rubbed their hands together in glee as I signed over half my worldly posessions just to get my clutch re-somethinged. I dread mechanics almost as much as I dread dentists. All I ever wanted was to just take my car into a shop, tell them what the symptoms are, and then trust them to make a good diagnosis, and fix the problem.
But I kept finding out that the part I’d just shelled out five hundred bucks for was $80 at the local parts store. And that whatever they just charged me a small fortune for didn’t do anything to fix the problems I was having. Etcetera. You get the idea.
And then, I met Mr. R_. He’s a tall man, in his fifties I’d say, who looks more like the veteran cowboy in an old Western than a car mechanic. Sort of a Jack Palance crossed with a Mr. Rogers. He doesn’t talk much, but he’s always friendly. And I’d love to know as much about anything as he does about cars.
But he’s not just a good, possibly even a great mechanic. He’s also the most honest businessman I’ve ever met. He’s had any number of opportunities to take advantage of my ignorance, and more recently, to use my Mom’s ignorance of cars to profit off of her. He’s sent both of us off, at least twice, with a fix that cost a couple of bucks when he could have soaked us for hundreds. I have total confidence in leaving my old junker with him, and telling him to check it out and find anything that might be wrong, or going wrong. I know, for certain, that anything he says needs fixing, does.
Almost every time I’ve done this, the car has come back with a thorough checkout, an oil change, and a bill of less than thirty bucks.
This man never advertizes, he doesn’t have a yellow pages ad even. All of his business is word of mouth. And every time I’ve been in his shop, he has tons of work lined up. He works carefully, quietly, with two assistants who he’s obviously trained to be the same kind of mechanic he is. He never seems hurried, never seems rushed, but when he gives you a time to pick up your car, it’ll be ready by then, for certain.
His office is decorated with promotional items from various parts companies, with a decided lack of swimsuit calendars. The magazines in the waiting room include several Christian publications, and there’s a rack for the local Christian newsletter. There are versions of the Christian fish scattered about the shop and office as well. I’ve never talked with him about his religion, I’d be surprised if we talked much about anything.
Every time I go into his shop, though, and see the patience, the care, the honesty that this man puts into his work, I’m impressed, even awed. He is, to me, an excellent example of someone living up to the very high standards of his beliefs, and being a sterling example to others. He’s the kind of person that I want to be.
I’ve noticed that some of our Christian members here are having a hard time with things, for various reasons. I wanted to make sure that they know that, whatever bad examples some self-proclaimed Christians might set, that we know they’re the exception and not the norm. I want to hold up some examples of the opposite extremes, of people who exemplify the decency inherent in Christianity, so that they know that even among those of us who don’t believe, we do see, and we appreciate, the good they can bring into the world.
Anyone else?
