The Gospel of Cars

I know this title sounds a little cheeky, perhaps even a little blasphemous. I won’t lie: it still amuses me to be a little provocative like that (I almost titled an earlier post “the gospel of warts,” but didn’t. Maybe I should have.) But I can assure you, there is nothing irreverent about the story I am about to tell. I pray this story finds you well, and that it enriches your life as much as it has mine. Without further adieu, let’s begin!

Being involved with the church and Christian life as much as I have over the years has one major pitfall: it’s easy to get pretty jaded. It can be easy to wave off the gospel with a yawn, saying “yeah, yeah, Jesus died for my sins, yippee for me. Can I go play video games now?” I’m sorry to say it, but it just gets stale. Lately, I had been praying for a revival, to be able to see the gospel through a new set of eyes. And God delivered. 

Ok, keep this idea in mind as I tell this story. So Monday I got rear-ended driving into work. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t drive the car, but my passenger-side tail lights got smashed pretty badly. I quickly grabbed the nice lady’s insurance and hit the road. Later on that day, I assessed the damage. It turns out my right side was bad enough that the lights weren’t working. I could still drive the car, but I couldn’t use my right turn signal. One of my coworkers reminded me that it was completely illegal to drive a car that didn’t have all its lights working. I barely needed the reminder-it seemed like common sense to me. But I still needed to get to work, so I kept on driving that smashed-up rust bucket til death do us part! 

But every time I stepped into that ol’ rust bucket, and turned that key to get her started, one thing was abundantly clear in my mind: I deserved to be pulled over. I deserved a ticket for the condition that my car was in. But what choice did I have? I couldn’t call off work, I had no choice but to risk it all! Monday was pretty easy, I could blame it on the fact that this just happened, and probably get off the hook just fine. But as the days passed, the reality of my condition sank deeper and deeper into my head. As I came home from my bible study on wednesday, everything came together. You see, in the dead of night as I was driving home, I drove right by a cop car. I felt myself grow pale as I lightly tapped the brakes to make sure I wasn’t speeding as well (which was probably the riskiest thing I could have done, since that’s when the tail lights usually light up,) and the most peculiar thing happened: nothing. 

As I breathed a sigh of relief, a thought floated through my head. “Huh, this is kind of a great gospel story, isn’t it?” God is something of a divine cop-He has to enforce the rules. Not because He feels like being a jerk, but because those rules keep us from danger. If the road was littered with broken cars like mine, we would never know when someone is turning, and the number of accidents would probably skyrocket! But we can’t afford to pay our own fines, or fix our own cars and He knows that too. The entire predicament struck me like a blast of cold air.

Here’s what I got out of it all: I have been getting what I don’t deserve. It’s one thing to talk about the stories, but they can get old. Especially now, when we have such an abundance of shows, movies and games in our faces. The reality of a story has become a bit lost on us. To live them out like this is another matter entirely, and it paints the premise of the gospel in a much more tangible light. I think this story will hit home later, when I’m not in the thick of this situation. Maybe I will have to write a “part 2,” based on the car-shopping experience. More on this as it develops! 

I think we all need a revival moment, especially those of us that grew up in the church. I have had it a few times, but I can be pretty thick sometimes. I’m not saying you should go on a massive rebellious streak, but I don’t think that it would hurt to pray for the bible to come to life. Could it be that bad to ask God to see Him anew, with fresh eyes and a wide-open heart? Could that really do any harm? I’m pretty sure it would do nothing but good, right? What would happen if we all prayed to have our eyes re-opened? What if we prayed to have our hearts made fresh? My hunch says that we would all glow like the moon, if we all had an experience like the gospel of cars. 

I pray you rediscover the God you thought you knew. I pray that He presents Himself to you in new and wonderful ways that deepen your understanding of who He is and what He has done for you. I pray that God pours His love out on you in a new way, a way that you can comprehend and deeply cherish.

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.