Yesterday, I went looking for a car for my son while he was at work. The few cars he could afford had already been purchased before I saw the ads on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. One twenty-year-old Buick had low miles and the right price, but it was sold before we could grab it. 

I went to a few car lots, but the prices were so high above Kelley Blue Book’s average for a private party sale, that I said goodbye to car lots. I was asked by each car lot person what I was looking for. I said the three most important things are reliability, reliability, and reliability. The cars offered were high milers that would invite a list of repair costs soon outstripping the original purchase price.

Reliability is not just for cars. It affects all aspects of life – the spouse we choose, our job performance, and how people interpret Scripture or live out a life of faith. Reliability is another word for faithfulness. All the bells and whistles and shiny paint jobs of a person’s persona don’t always serve us well when we need to travel somewhere relationally and they leave us stranded.

I asked my online sidekick Siri to provide a definition for the word “reliability.” In her sensible and measured AI-generated voice she said, “consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted.” I would agree.

If we offer our friends and family a life that is consistently good and trustworthy, we may not meet all the check-offs on our shopping list for a relationship, but when we are needed most in a challenging time of life, we will be there reliably present and faithful. That kind of quality of life is what all of us should aspire to in a world where relationships seem to be breaking down with increasing frequency leaving people abandoned and broken down along the roadways of life.