First of all, we all know within our moral consciousness that one’s social worth is based upon his character, not his possessions, looks, or popularity. Secondly, if we judge someone by their wealth, we become a respecter of persons, admiring Elijah's candy apple flame job and disdaining Noah and his cumbersome Ark!
Just before I turned 16, I bought a completely tricked out, hardly used Jeep for a whopping sum I don‘t care to mention. Although I had saved enough money to buy a nice, used vehicle, greed got the best of me, and I sank myself into an extra 2.5 thousand dollar debt. At the age of 16, I didn’t have a steady income, so this venture was already a mistake in my ever thinning billfold.
Another thing I realized was that I wanted everyone to like me for my Jeep, not for who I was as a person. I coveted this false image so much that I was willing to put myself under a financial burden that I knew I couldn’t responsibly repay.
So what is a good happy medium?
After reselling my Jeep, I started looking at my options. I wanted something masculine, with a good acceleration for playtime (I told you I was a normal guy!), and with enough seating for my friends. I finally settled on an eight year old Chevy Silverado 4x4. Due to high miles and God’s grace, the price of the truck was low enough for me to dig myself out of debt, and still be satisfied with my purchase. I put a couple of extras on it, but I made sure that my motives were correct and that God would be satisfied with my ‘improvements’.
Simply remember this: When you’re looking at buying your vehicle or adding accessories to it, pretend that God is standing right beside you. If God was standing behind you, would you pay that much money? Would you really buy something that draws a ’look-at-me’ image to yourself? We are to glorify God, not our vehicles or self image. Use discretion and your good conscience, and I’m sure we’ll all keep our hearing aids at normal volume as you rumble through town!
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