Selling, Buying, or Telling

Yes, selling a car and then buying another has to be one of the most frustrating and endless necessities of modern life. Everyone is trying to get the best deal: low mileage, good engine, no rust, low price… and the list goes on as we hear in our heads, “You get what you pay for”. To better state that, “You get what you can pay for”. Price is not the issue, cost is. What is it going to cost me to handle this transaction? Can I work with it? Is it a lemon? How long will it run?

What do friends say about that car? What do you do when the mechanic says, “I wouldn’t” and that is the only price range you can deliver? And right about now we get the feeling that everyone in the world has already found the “best deal” and we are looking at the left behinds. I have to sell both of my cars and buy two other cars. That makes it a double difficult process. Such is my world now.

Thankfully our spiritual lives do not surround this emptiness. I heard a wonderful pastor say one time, “We are all selling Jesus. We are salesman”. When I heard that my heart struggled. We can’t sell Jesus because He is not for sale. No one can buy Him as they do not have the money to pay for Him. We are not salesmen. We are Executors of a will or trust. Someone has died and left an unlimited resource that pays all our debts and makes unimaginably wealthy. We are ambassadors “reconciling” man to God. We are farmers casting seeds and watching God’s automatism growing it, anything but salesmen. We are scores of other things to spread the Word, but we are not in the spiritual car business.

In another view, our car to heaven has already been paid for; we enjoy the ride. No one sells me on it, nor do I work to pay for it. We don’t’ have to worry about getting a better deal, or that we might miss the better deal. Each heaven-directed transaction is perfectly suited for the individual. The map is set, the fuel is just enough. At times our window wipers do not work hard enough to see through the storm. The bumps or potholes in the road jolt and dislodge us but we can’t get out of the car. Amen to that. We don’t want to.

But the large blessing is the not paying or selling, just enjoying God’s choice for us. Some have a 4X4 truck because they will carry burdens. Some will own a fast coupe to get to the destination quickly. Others will have bright colors to bring attention to the Maker. Some will enjoy luxury so as to give comfort and aid to needy travelers. We may have accidents and be in the shop so as to watch the Divine Mechanic do His work. Those repairs too have also been paid for, although the marks may be seen for the life of the car.

All the “extras” are determined and we may enjoy them, or we enjoy the knowledge that others have those extras even though we do not. “Each according to his gift”, it says. There are CD players for praise, radios for preaching, neither for prayer, A/C or sweat, heater or frost, snow or dry, manual or automatic. The fit is perfect so the appreciation and use causes growth in the body.

As we keep driving the mileage continues to mount up. We are to keep good maintenance as there will be a day when the engine will run out of gas but it will exactly be at the destination.

So what is ours? We enjoy and yell out the window about the free car lot right around the corner. Ours is to bring people to get the car of their dreams where merit means nothing and everything is free because the Maker’s Son bought it for them.

Don’t cheapen the cars by selling them or denying them by not bringing the “car-less”. Bring, offer, and hope, as there is enough for all who want one.

And PS, if you know of a good car or cars at a low price, let me know.