One blog a month = wicked boring, but reality.
This morning at 6:30 I smashed up my car. Still waiting on word of whether or not it's totalled. A little about this car: it's been a thorn in my side since I drove it off the lot. It's a grand car- attractive, fast, loaded... just unnecessary for a car of mine to have all these attributes. When buying the car, as we were talking with the salesman (stereotypical used car dealer, btw), God was speaking to my spirit telling me this wasn't a wise choice. It was too late for me by that point though. My heart was lost to it. I had been dreaming of this charcoal 2000 Passat wagon since the first time I clamped eyes on it a few weeks earlier. My heart wasn't open to truth and wisdom, it was open to greed. I love cars. My brother Ise had me playing car-naming games since I was a tot, but the best thing I had owned until last June was a '96 Jeep Cherokee (a '90 Geo Prism preceding that. Jealous?). Wasn't it time for me to live the dream? Here's the thing about the dream -- the summer of 2008 was a high rolling summer for us with buying a house and a car... but looking back it was the most miserable time in my life. I had mono, which was more burdensome than anything I have ever experienced, twisting my body and my emotions into a mess. A major piece to the misery puzzle was trading in a perfectly functional, reliable, faithful old Jeepster for a newer, more attractive model...fully equipped with a 6 disk changer, leather/heated seats, and a monthly payment. Oh the foolishness of me.
Andrew and I are currently involved in a Bible study that's teaching us what the Bible says about money. "Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone, and you are the Ruler of all mankind; your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength." 1 Chronicles 27:11, 12
So as we learn God's principles in handling money, we're seeing how doorknobbish some of our choices have been.
In brainstorming about how to humbly get ourselves out of this vehicle pickle with as little humiliation as possible, we thought the best way would be to total it and use in insurance money to buy something smaller and cheaper - a Geo, perhaps? So, this morning as we were driving into town, we made up this whole scenario of how our car could get totalled without any injury. It involved a grocery store parking lot, an old guy who didn't know the difference between 'D' and 'R', said old guy backing into our parked, passenger-less car, and an explosion. *The old man in this story was not harmed in any way. Ironically enough, just minutes after relating this story to my sister Anna via cell phone, I'm suddenly in and out of a major washout on a gravel road, not sure what just happened, wondering where the airbag shot my phone off to. Mission: accomplished...accidentally.
