My dream car for many years was a Porsche 911. To me this represented performance, style and expressed to the world that you made it. It meant that you were at the top of the food chain. The love of this car started when I was in my early 20’s and I was dating a girl who’s father raced them. He was an amateur driver and considered himself and part time mechanic. We bonded over the cars and mechanics.
During that time I couldn’t afford a 911, even a 1975 at $12K ( check out current prices) but I came close to buying a 916 2.0 six-cylinder for around $4K ( check out those prices now!). My father talked me out of it and said that when I was older and I had money, then I could go buy that car because it would take loads of money to fix and maintain.
The girl didn’t work out and neither did buying a collector car. Over the years I continued to toy around with buying a collector car and restoring it but life happened and the more important things took precedence. Then a couple of years ago, the Porsche resurgence craze started up and I got the itch bad! I researched, called, negotiated. All of this and I still didn’t have enough money to straight up buy it but I did have some money stashed away. I had been hinting to my wife that I was going to buy one but she dismissed it as another “itch”. One thing led to another and I bought a 2001 911 (GT3 Aero Package) through some convoluted way where I used a credit card with a long term APR offer and some cash and I don’t know what else.
When I brought the car home my wife was in total shock and disbelief and told me that car had no business in our neighborhood or let alone the house. That was the only and last thing she said about the car and never, ever questioned or judged me about it.
Over time the Lord convicted me about this. Not because the car in and of itself was bad but because it was masquerading a deeper issue, idolatry ( Leviticus 19:4 ). Yes I enjoyed driving it; the technology, the performance, the style but at the heart of it, I had bought the car when we didn’t have expendable income and there were other more important things to address. I had purchased the car because I was tired of the daily struggle and bought into the lie that I would never have enough so why wait for it. I was also looking for affirmation I was successful. Finally I also realized that as a father of three boys and a wife, there was never going to be a time we could all enjoy the car. It was all about me.
It took two years but I finally came to terms with the stupidity of my decision. I was trying to solidify my identity with that car. I wanted to the world to see me as I had seen others that drove that car. As a successful, powerful and influential man. The Lord revealed to me that I didi’t need an object to validate my worth or as a symbol that I had “made it”. Rather, I was still a work in progress and I would always be a work in progress. Maybe someday I’ll own one for the right reasons. The important thing to keep in mind is a thing in and of itself has no value other than that which we assign it.
The day the Lord calls us home and says “Well done well good and faithful servant” – Mathew 25:21 is the day we would have “made it”. For now, let’s find our value in how and we’re investing into eternity because there is where our true value lies.
PS: I sold the car and broke even so with the left over money I bought a small flats boat that all five us enjoy. This has brought me much more happiness and memories than I would have imagined.
Encouragement:
We’re a work in progress and the Lord loves us to much to leave us as we are. When we submit to His will he makes all things good.
FX3 Daily D::
Read: Mathew 25:21
Pray: Make a list and ask Him to help you make him first and remove the desire for that idol(s).
Meditate / Make It Real: Make God the first and last thing you think about every day. Give a morning thank you prayer and before retiring for the night, reflect on all he did.
