Cars I've Owned

I don’t know what it is about me…but cars have never been a desirable status symbol! Perhaps it was that I grew up riding in classics…like a ‘48 Nash Rambler (that broke down in New York on our 1956 road trip) or the 54 Studebaker that looked like an F8 fighter jet…but smoked like one being shot down. Maybe it was that I valued people more than things, or maybe it was that I took seriously Matthew 6:33… But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So, I never made owning a “hot” car a status symbol. Cars have always been a tool to get me somewhere, not to make an impression on others. Because of this, I’m famous for buying ugly. I’ve owned some beauties in my day. There was the ’69 Plymouth Valiant that I bought…country green. It was so bad that a friend who worked at a dealership volunteered to have it painted. I asked for Robin’s Egg blue, but because it was a VW dealership, I got Rabbit Blue—you’d never miss me in town! And there is the vehicle I own at present…with a topcoat that looks like a peeling sunburn.

Yet, I’ve owned some fantastic cars in my day: a ‘57 Chevy; a ’79 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird (platinum gray with the red and black bird on the hood and a huge engine); a ’68 Mustang. The Matthew 6:33 thing about them is that I never bought a single one of them. They were all pretty much given to me.

When I became a pastor, I pretty much gave up having things because of Mathew 6:33. Yet, God has given us a very nice home with a view and this continual string of nice cars, just to keep His word in that verse.

Some of you would notice, however, that for most of those vehicles the ownership is past tense. This is because of my practical and conservative nature. The ’57 Chevy morphed into a ’64 Valiant because it was a big V8 with an automatic transmission. The ‘79 TransAm became too expensive to insure and was transformed into a Dodge Caravan, much more practical for hauling around a family of 5 (and much to the chagrin of our son). Now, the ’68 Mustang…it still lives in our garage and is waiting for a new engine!

I’m not completely brain dead!