“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)
Have you ever sat and watched a little boy play? It seems like they come into this world with a natural inclination towards machines. They pick up a block of wood, and push it around on the floor while making Vroom, Vroom noises with their mouth. My wife asks, “What noises did little boys make before there were cars, trucks, tractors or planes?” I would just look at her, then smile and tell her, that the reason we have cars, trucks, tractors and planes, is because little boys had to come up with something to match their noises.
Like many other little boys, I had a fetish with machines, and the faster, or more powerful the better. I fell in love at an early age with shiny paint, machined metal, and chrome. So, when I grew up it was no surprise to anyone, of my exuberant fascination with cars. As a teenager I had a need for speed, and I wanted my car to be the best and the fastest. Every Friday night, before I would head into town for the ritualistic cruising around with my friends, I would spend countless hours polishing my car, and detailing the interior, to give it that perfect pristine look. To make sure it was operating at peak performance, I would take out the sparkplugs and clean them, adjust the distributor points, check the ignition timing, and fine tune the carburetor, to make sure everything was perfect. It was safe to say that my car and my stuff were very important to me.
An infatuation with machines isn’t the only innate trait little boys inherit, but they also inherit the ungodly desire for things of this world. All of life isn’t as carefree as ones childhood years, or preparing to run around with the boys on Friday night. I would grow up and make my share of bad mistakes through the years. Some were worse than others, but no one less frustrating than the other and the effects of each one were still very painful, no matter how big or small. I no longer had the most immaculate car on the block, no smooth running engines, shiny paint, or gnarly sound system. Actually, it was quite the contrary. Due to many bad financial decisions, I had been reduced to driving an old beat up ‘Ford’ my father-in-law had pulled out of a horse pasture. It seemed to run okay, but the paint and vinyl top had been chewed off by the horses. It wasn’t much of a looker, but it ran decent, and I needed transportation.
Though I tried greatly, it was difficult for me to see how God was using this car to teach me to be more Christ-like. Oh, I agree, He was teaching me through much suffering how to be content with what I had, but I just wasn’t ready to listen yet. I was saying all of the right things. Like when my older brother made the statement, “I can’t believe some of the stuff you drive now. You used to have the best of everything, and now all you drive is junk!” I would simply respond with something spiritual like, “Well, I’ve finally come to the point in my life were I’ve realized it’s just a piece of metal, and the only thing we use it for is transportation”. All the while trying to hide the shame I felt inside and seething with disgust I would go home and try to scrape up enough money to put a new vinyl top on it, or a decent set of wheels and tires, so hopefully nobody would notice all the paint had been chewed off by a bunch of pigment-deficient horses.
It was hard being humble, and even harder being humbled. I never realized how far I had fallen, until one day a man in our church approached me about my car. It seems like every church has a family that, for whatever reason, is considered the ‘poor of this world’. You know who I’m talking about; the ones who struggle making it to all of the services, but they never miss a social event where food is being served. This man would have been that individual in our church. He came to me, and began telling me about this car he had at home that was just like mine. He said the only thing wrong with it was, it had a bad engine, but the paint and interior of the car was in very good condition. He told me that if I was interested in the car, he would help me tow it to my house, and then I could put the engine out of my car into it. That’s when he said those cutting words I will never forget, “because, your car looks really bad and I would be ashamed to drive it”. Ouch!!! You know you’re poor when the poor call you poor.
As time went along, eventually I came to the point in life, where I had accepted my humble provisions, and driving junk didn’t really bother me anymore. Things in life began to smooth out. Through my humbling experiences, I had learned to keep my focus more on Christ, and less on the things of this world. I never realized just how much of a distraction my desires had been in my walk, and just how worldly I had become. I began practicing a debt-free principle, and trusted in God more and more to direct my path through the funds He provided. I soon learned that, if it was a necessity, the money always seemed to be available, but if it was an unnecessary desire, sometimes I would have to wait on the funds, or look for some more practical alternative to my circumstances. I learned to appreciate what God had provided for us. Finally, my prayers were answered. The old Ford gave up the ghost, and we were able to upgrade.
By this time, the lessons I had learned, helped me to get back on the right track financially. I still couldn’t afford to buy a nicer vehicle debt-free, nor was I really wanting to, at this point. I was almost afraid to have anything nice, for fear of heading back down the same old worldly road again. So I found a new ride, which was a ‘jewel of a find’. I was able to pry this gem away from my father-in-law’s local barnyard auto sales. Still another old Ford, it had a smashed front fender and driver side door, the windshield was cracked, but fortunately all of the paint was the same color, and nothing had been chewed off, so I was riding in style once again.
I thought I had overcome the lust for stuff, but old habits die hard, especially when your stuff is the brunt of everyone else’s jokes. Satan is always looking for an opportunity to bring us down. What made it even worse is that, every day as I would walk out of work, located in the shop area of our building, was this beautiful red and black Pontiac convertible that just seemed to be calling out to me. My boss told me, “You just need to buy yourself one of those. I know what you make, and you can afford to make the payments. So what’s the big deal if you want it?” I would remind him of my commitment to a debt-free principle, and stress if God wanted me to have something like that, He would provide the funding. I couldn’t see that happening, since the car I already had was doing perfectly fine for what I needed it to do.
One day as I drove home from work, Satan was working on me and I was really struggling with discontent. I thought, “How hard would it be to make payments again?” No sooner had the thought entered my mind, when I felt the Lord asking me, just exactly why was it that I wanted this new car. The one I had ran fine, it got excellent fuel economy, everything on it worked, and there was very little maintenance cost. So, what was my reason? As I ran that question over and over in my mind, I could only come up with one answer. I wanted to be the envy of everyone on the road. I was ashamed to admit it, because I thought I had moved passed all the pride and worldly desire. It was shallow, but I wanted people to look over at me, as I whipped by with the top down, wind in my hair, beautiful blonde (my wife is a blonde) at my side with a big ‘Dentine’ smile, and thinking to themselves, “boy I wish that was me”. Instead, when I come by, people move over, or speed up for fear my car won’t stay together, and they will be dodging flying debris from the crazy man in the beat-up old Junker.
At that moment, I realized I hadn’t really moved past the pride at all. What I had done wasn’t to let it all go but rather I had learned to keep the pride and desires, repressed. God tells the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 8 the reason He fed them manna in the wilderness was so they would learn to desire nothing but Him. He didn’t want their focus to be on all the stuff they had while they were in Egypt, He wanted their focus on Him. Not until they could desire Him alone would they ever be free from what really kept them in bondage.
What I was really doing was waiting until my financial condition improved, so I could feel okay about having stuff again. But deep down inside I was still scared, because of where I was afraid it might lead me. God was showing me that keeping these feelings repressed hadn’t freed me from their bondage, and the only way I would be free, was for me to acquire a new perspective. At any time, Satan could find a crack in the armor, and have me right back into the pit of despair living from paycheck to paycheck buying all kinds of stuff. I needed to know that God’s love for me is unconditional, that He cared for me, and that my worth was not in what I drove or what I had, but in His love for me. So, on the way home that day, God changed my perspective in a very real and powerful way.
I had a very long commute, and about halfway into my drive home that evening, a terrible storm moved in from the west. Storms were just something I had gotten used to driving in, but on this particular day, I drove into a horrendous hail storm. It was so widespread, and severe, the ground was completely covered with little white stones as far as you could see about the size of a dime. I forged ahead as it lasted for miles, and as I passed through a number of overpasses, was amazed at the hordes of people in brand new, shimmering cars trying as hard as they could to squeeze underneath the overpasses, to prevent damage to all their prized possessions.
As I drove past, each one of those drivers watched me in my little, beat up, old car, as I could see a longing in their eyes, as I was not detained from my course, undaunted in my travels. Then God told me, “There you go, today you are the envy of everyone on the road, because today, everybody wishes they had your car.” I am reminded of an old saying I heard once, “When you come to the edge of the unknown and are about to step into the darkness you must have faith that one of two things will happen. You will either land firmly on solid ground or God will teach you to fly.” It wasn’t the way I had expected it to happen but God helped me to achieve my dreams.
So many times in this life, we forget we are aliens in this place and we get caught up in the things of this world. Someone at the office or the gym will make us feel appreciated, which is something we are missing at home. Before you know it, that moment of weakness has destroyed our family. Often times, it’s a desire of the flesh Satan uses to lure us into a life of immoral sin, where we get lost trying to fulfill an appetite, that can’t be satisfied. At other times, it’s lust of the eyes, where we spiral out of control, buying things we can’t afford, and we end up in America’s version of debtor’s prison—credit cards. When this happens, we find ourselves forced to serve earthly gods, because we haven’t been the good stewards we were commanded to be. On this particular journey for me, it was pride of life. I was becoming bitter, because I found myself coveting what everyone else had. I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t want me to have all the better things in life. Whether it was cars, houses, vacations, or lawn mowers, I was being lured by Satan into thinking all that was important was what this world had to offer.
Matt. 16:26 tells us, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” I had forgotten what the real prize was, an eternity with our Lord and Savior. I had forgotten that God’s main goal wasn’t to be cruel to me, but that I might be conformed to the image of His son. I knew then, that even though I was driving junk, I was not junk, because I am covered by the shed blood of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God wanted to show me that my destination is always secure, because I am a joint heir of His kingdom. All that I wanted in this world will pass away, but He wanted to give me something other than wood, hay, and stubble. He wanted to give me something that would last for eternity.
For Further Study: Knowing the Father’s Love
Scripture: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13 (ESV)
Group Discussion:
- Is it possible for us to repress our worldly desires, and yet never be free from them?
- Can you list times in your life where God was feeding you Manna from heaven to teach you how to desire him alone?
- How can having the wrong perspective prevent growth in our spiritual walk?
- Do we sometimes equate the success of our Christian walk with how we prosper in this life?
- Does living in certain cultures make it harder to keep our focus off of worldly desires? If so, how can we prevent this danger?
Key Thought: “What ‘one thing’ is so important in this life, that we would be willing to sacrifice eternity for it?”