Boys and Their Trucks

The last words from the nurse before I left the medical center were “don’t make any important decisions today”.  The anesthesia tended to leave one in a fog for some period of time.  I failed to follow her advice, and by 6:30 that evening, we had a new truck.

I had been driving a ‘93 Chevy S-10 4x4 for the past 7 1/2 years.  With 175,000 miles, and showing signs of old age, it seemed prudent to begin looking for a replacement.  That process had begun roughly six months prior.  No sense in rushing.  It was apparent that the truck I wanted with the parameters I had set would be difficult to come by.  So I diligently looked, checking the crucial internet sights almost daily.  I had just told my wife that my patience was reaching an end.

I returned home from my medical procedure confined to light duty.  Wanting to make the most of the time, I went on a local dealer’s web site and looked at their inventory.  Finding nothing, I filled out a form to alert them of the vehicle I desired, and got my first call within a few hours.  The salesman did not have anything like I wanted, but would let me know if anything turned up.  Within the hour, he called back.  A truck had been traded that day.  I should come take a look.

The truck when we bought it, November, '10.

Since this salesman was only doing what I had requested, it was only fit to respond.  I took my whole family down to investigate.  It was, in fact, everything he had described, and exactly what I had been searching for.  The price was a little higher than what I had hoped to pay, but we made the decision that it was worth it.

That evening before going to bed, my daughter asked if I was “excited” about the new truck.  I wouldn’t use that word to describe my thoughts.  I had things going on in the back of my mind that put a damper on any “excitement”.

                            

The following morning, my wife jokingly/somewhat seriously told me she was hoping I wasn’t worried I had made a poor decision under the after-effects of anesthesia.  No, I was pretty confident my head had been clear by 6:30 p.m.  But I did confess that something was nagging me.  So I had to walk through all the possibilities to try to determine what that might be.

Were we being good stewards with that money?  I may have gotten another year or two out of my old S-10.  I had wanted to move to a full sized extended cab 4x4 to have the room to take our four kids to the beach fishing.  I suppose I could have made due with another S-10, and abandoned the fishing idea.  And of course there was that irksome thought of the possibility of the whole U.S economy crashing again, this time even worse.  Then there are the unemployed who would be perfectly content in my shoes to keep driving the Chevy while just trying to feed their families.  Oh, and what about saving for college and retirement?

But this “new” truck was ten years old with 100,000 miles.  The four wheel drive was practically a necessity. Moving to the full size would accommodate more tools and materials.    

To no great surprise, I was approaching the problem with my typical analysis.  The best my logical mind of the flesh could do was to create a burden that caused my brain to hurt.  I could see both sides of the mental argument, and neither outweighed the other.

The following day, I was pondering on Jacob.  We had been studying the stealing of the birthright and blessing stories.  The Lord always meant to bless Jacob, even from the time he was in the womb, but Jacob worked his hardest anyway to try to gain that blessing.  It would appear that he just didn’t trust God to do what He was planning to do anyway.  Or perhaps he was missing the main point...

Somehow, The Lord is able to take what you are reading and apply it to your own life, often unexpectedly.  Ugh.  You don’t suppose I had an issue of trust here?

We added a cap and ladder racks.

While all of those concerns I was pondering may indeed have some legitimacy, it occurred to me that perhaps the problem which The Lord wanted to put His finger on was trust.  I believe The Lord has provided for us in the past.  I believe that He is providing for us right now.  But apparently it was my trust that He would provide for us in the future which was at stake.

Money in the bank represents security to the eyes of flesh.  Certainly it is prudent to save for the future, but fear of actually using those funds for a need now because we will need them in the future, well, that has doubt written all over it. 

In my mind, Jacob seemed unclear about what the blessing actually was, and how it would come about.  So he worked feverishly to make sure it happened.  He could not rest in the promise that God would bring it to pass.  I found myself almost unwittingly wrestling with a concern about future provision.  I would have to decide if I could continue to trust The Lord and rest, despite an unseen future, or fret.  The Lord needed to do a work in my fretting department. 

After coming to this conclusion, I spoke about it with one of the friends with whom I was studying Jacob.  He gently reminded me of one of the key points we had been discussing.  I was neglecting the bottom line of the Jacob story.  The real substance of the blessing which The Lord intended for Jacob was Himself.  And He would ultimately be manifested through Jacob and his descendants in the person of Christ.  The world would be blessed through Christ.

The Best Truck, Ever, October, '11.

So what I was seeing had to be adjusted slightly.  The bottom line of my truck purchase quandary is this - I don’t know what the material provision will look like for my family in the future.  But there is no need to fret about it, because I do know we are blessed beyond our expectations in the person of Christ.  This doesn’t mean we can handle our finances irresponsibly, and it doesn’t mean we won’t go through slim times - more than likely we will.  But Christ has been given to us freely, therefore we have ALL we need.  What our future holds is simply a fuller understanding of what we already have now in Him.  And that will sustain us through whatever the next twenty years bring.

Post Script:  I have been driving this truck almost a year.  I pride myself on not being materialistic, but I love this truck. I have not, not for one second, regretted buying it since this story was written.