Larger Than Life

Day 244 in my "Year In My Life Through Pictures" blog series

I'm sure you have seen trucks like this before, just not in this form as a pickup truck. The more common variety would be as a dump truck, garbage truck, tank truck or any other types of commercial vehicles, but as a pickup it is not that common. It took me a while of searching to find out how much one of these trucks costs. According to the ad on this page they list for $97,600 or about the list price of my car times almost 5. Oh yeah, it is a Ford F650 by the way.

I have had dealings through my job with the owner of this truck. He owns a local scrap yard and is as down to earth as any well off person could be. The difference is he has money and he likes to spend it. His bank account is big which makes his toys bigger than the average fellow. Not saying he's a bad person for spending his money at all, just that he has a higher budget of disposable funding than most people.

We all have our extravagance items. You may not think of them as that, but they are. A truck like the one I pictured may seem over the top for most people, but I know that he uses it for business too and not only as a driver for himself. Most of our extravagant items cost less, but they are the ones that are not really needed in every day life, but have become habits to us. Instead of water we drink soda or $5 a cup coffee. Instead of a square meal prepared at home we drive our nice cars, with their climate controls, listening to the CD player or watching a DVD in the back seat to dine at a restaurant where we know no one else or the ones preparing our meal. Our meal price includes a piece of the wait staff's salary, the dishwasher salary, the manager's salary, the operational costs of the building and finally the cost of the food. So, we pay 10 times what the meal would cost at our home. That is a little extravagant as well. Or is it? Our culture thinks nothing of going out to eat or going to a movie theater and spending $50 for a family of 4 to see a movie. Or how about the cost of a sporting event? How extravagant is that?

How do all of the things that we indulge in compare to what we give to the church and to godly things? This is pointed at myself too, so I am preaching to me too. We think nothing about overpaying for a "nice" dinner, but that same $50 would pay for a months worth of food in a foreign country for a family. No guilt trips, just facts. We have grown accustomed to pampering ourselves instead of offering a cup of water to the least of these. We are so wrapped up in our own wants and "needs" that we have forgotten about the mercy a Christian should feel toward others. We clinch tight to our wallets on Sunday morning, but the night before were out with a group of friends throwing money around like it was nothing - in the name of fun and fellowship. Not that there is anything wrong with fun and fellowship, but if it is looked at in a higher context than things of God, then we have a problem.

I need to seriously repent in this area and get hold of my priorities. I am guilty of a lot of what I mentioned, but thank God He has shown me that. If it didn't bother I would have a problem. Now I have another "reason" to seek God, to show me where my priorities should be and to be a better steward of the money He has entrusted to my family. May He be glorified in my life and may I seek Him more each day.