One of my first cars was a truck. Not just any truck, mind you, but a former fleet vehicle bought from the airport in Atlanta, GA. Another was a mid-70’s model Ford Mustang iteration. Not the cool one, though. Definitely not the cool one.
I eventually got a job that provided a work truck. (Yes, I dated a girl while driving a Datsun truck with side toolboxes and laden with pest control chemicals. She eventually married me because God is full of grace and glory.)
Shortly after marriage, we began the normal American series of family-mobiles: sedans, gas savers, minivans, trucks, and more gas savers. They were efficient, needed, and helpful, but there wasn’t a cool car in the mix.
In 2016, after our youngest reached her junior year of college, my wife and I discussed me fulfilling my dream since getting a driver’s license: owning a cool car. Not an expensive car, just a cool car.
After a few months of research and I finally settled on a 2003 Honda S2000, a two-seater convertible, manufactured only ten years, from 1999-2009. It was a blast: fast, great handling, and affordable. After two weeks I thought I’d never sell it.
We sold it last week, replaced by a gas saver.
Maybe I’ll have a cool car again one day; maybe not. But, if I never do, the last year-and-a-half have reminded me of a few truths.
Hold things of this earth loosely.
I was happy when I bought the cool car and had fun driving it, but I knew the entire time it was God’s car, not mine. When our family needs changed our automobiles had to change, too.
There is a tendency among Christians to quote “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness of it” while holding on to our stuff for dear life. If God owns everything—and scripture indicates he does—then moving his assets around is his business, not mine; I am a manager, not an owner.
Never let things grab my heart.
Jesus told us,
Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)
Heart follows treasure. I never want my heart to be captive to temporal goods, bestowing on them treasure status. Any thing we love runs the risk of becoming an earthly treasure. Mammon is a fickle god and we would be wise never to worship it.
Automobiles are to be tools: nothing more, nothing less.
Cars and trucks should be viewed much the same as wrenches, ratchets, and sling-blades: tools for accomplishing tasks. Many people in the world do not have enough money to own an automobile. Many choose not to own one. Many, arguably, own more than they need.
How ever many cars or trucks we own should be subject to this question: does my ownership of this vehicle help or harm my role in spreading the gospel? (Some might argue a Ferrari helps spread it faster than a Yugo, but that seems a sketchy missiology.) At a specific time of life does a used car glorify God more than a new one? At a different time does a new car glorify God more than a used one? An SUV over a sedan, or vice versa? Like any tool we should consider our needs when deciding which tool is the best for the job. Just as a pneumatic drill is sometimes a better choice than an open-end wrench, sometimes a 15-passenger van is a better choice than a Smart car. And, sometimes it is not.
Each person must answer to God as to what kind of vehicle he or she purchases, but in the end it remains that automobiles are only to be tools.
No car is worth being in bondage.
While buying a car is one thing, arguments can be made on both sides as to whether one should always pay cash or if a loan if acceptable. One thing not acceptable is a loan so big we are not only in debt but in bondage. Everyone who has read Proverbs 22:7 knows the borrower is servant to the lender. In our day repossession and credit damage is more likely than jail time. But, jail is not the only way to experience bondage.
Payments so exorbitant as to render generosity improbable, family vacations impossible, savings inconsistent, and ongoing needs ignored is bondage. It isn’t forced bondage; it’s voluntary. Yet, it is bondage nonetheless.
Vehicles should not confer status or build ego.
Using vehicles as ego boosters is a fiercely-waving red flag that we are bowing the knee to mammon, this world’s most accessible replacement for the true God. Pride will cause us to buy a vehicle that violates every warning above. The “pride of life” is listed by the Apostle John as one of three categories of this passing world.
The pagan king Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way: “[God] is able to humble those who walk in pride” (Daniel 4:37).
Autos are merely tools, but I never want one to be a tool with which God has to humble me. In that case, I would rather walk.
