Living for My Car?

When I was a young fellow, I had a full-time job, and I was thinking about buying a brand-new 1978 Chevrolet Camaro. My Dad had the gall to suggest if I did I ought to get a four-cylinder engine! Nah, I wanted the 350. My mother pointed out that if I did that I would be entirely living for my car, which I didn’t think sounded like such a bad idea. I was living at home, going to community college (which they were paying for) so if I was careful, it looked like I could actually pull it off. Of course, I had not checked rates on insurance for such a car and a 19-year-old kid. And my parents’ ace in the hole was they would have to sign for such a loan, which if I had read their mind, they probably would not do. Was living for my car such a bad idea?

Well, the rest of the story is I bought a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, it did have Porsche hubcaps… But it was only $675 and I paid cash for it. Well, hey, I had a lot of fun in that car. My folks played that pretty well. They let me work through the decision and then praised me, probably breathing a sigh of relief.

The Financial Trap

In all the financial management classes I have been part of over the years, usually the thing that brings about financial disaster is buying too much car for your income. This blog builds on a Facebook post I wrote the other day. There is this obnoxious commercial on Kansas City radio where a car dealership offers a car for ten cents down. AND, if you take home $400 a week, they will loan you up to $30,000 (probably depending on what else you have for a monthly payment).  Suppose you don’t owe anything else, and you do take home $400 per week, and you borrow the full amount. Did you know (if your loan is 5 years at 6%) you will be paying $600 a month for the car, and probably $200 a month for full coverage insurance (required with the loan). So, half your monthly income is your car.

But there’s more, you’ll need about $2625 up front for taxes, plus title and license plates. Then, when the good old county tax comes up in December, you’ll owe about $1000. This is what we call living for my car.

And the ridiculous radio ad (I think I will hold off from naming them) makes fun of a guy who (foolishly??) put thousands down when he could have picked up his car for ten cents. But what they are not saying is this fellow probably left himself some eating money. I also bet he picked a car that wasn’t $30,000. He wants to live his life, not his car.

The Spiritual Lesson

Of course, I am a pastor and there is a spiritual lesson in all this. For years I resented never owning a new car. It bothered me that I have never had the experience of buying a car, “just because I liked that one”. I have always bought cars that met the need and were affordable and did not break the bank. Those cars are all right, but they are not the 1978 Camaro with the V-8. I decided I could not go to the car show at Bartle Hall; it just would just make me somehow resent my lot in life.

But the Lord has taught me some lessons over the years. One is something Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Our car (or house or boat or whatever grabs our imagination), is not our life. Our value as a human being is not increased by what we have, or diminished by what we don’t have. If I had committed myself to living for my car in 1978, I would have either wrecked it, or, like most American cars in 1978, it would have rusted out.

Our Treasures

This leads us to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21) It is interesting He mentions rust.

There are a couple of lessons from Jesus about our treasures. We don’t want to live for our car or for any earthly thing, we want to live for Jesus. And one of the things that goes with that, is being thankful for what we do have. If we are honest with ourselves and thankful to God, we’ve had everything we need, and many of the things we’ve wanted.

Our new summer series is called, “Unstoppable!” Check out the first message here.