Cold weather is teasing us…and my car’s tire pressure sensors apparently don’t like to be teased. While I struggled to add air today at a gas station I don’t usually frequent, a kind stranger informed me that Firestone Tires gives a complementary pressure reading and air refill when needed.

I made a beeline for the nearest location. And I came back from my lunch break to inform several (grateful) co-workers who had no idea about the availability of that simple but wonderful service. I felt a little sheepish in doing so, having to admit in the process that I’d learned the hard way after wrestling with an air pump that had a less-than-familiar nozzle type, spending far more time than I would have liked struggling on my own — when that free service was just down the street.

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about how our personal growth (spiritual and otherwise) – if it is to be called true growth – often involves things getting harder before they can get easier, darker before they can get lighter, and more fragmented before they can become fully mended.

In addition, a person will rarely be set free from an addiction or overcome a long-time area of weakness unless they personally recognize their need for such freedom and decide that they will do whatever it takes (or give up whatever they must) in order to find that desired freedom.

What we most often crave and need is love. God’s love.

The only kind of truth-bound love that will really set us free.

The only kind of love that will keep us going on the journey toward meaningful growth.

The only kind of love that struggles with us until we stop struggling and cooperate with it, trust it, to find what we’ve been looking for all along – the only One who can meet our every need.

And that – far and away above the kindness of Firestone – is something to tell others about.