Step 2: Buy a House…

Just to preface, these are only my opinions on things. You could apply that to everything I post here. I want to share a few of my observations on cars before I start talking about buying a house, just because it’s fresh on my mind. We are so dependent on cars in our society. They are almost a necessity. As a result, we spend A LOT of money on them. Not just on the actual cost of buying them, but the maintenance, the insurance, the gas, and yes, accidents! I have kind of learned to laugh about it, but it seems like for Theresa and I, we have to take one of our cars to the body shop for repairs about every 6 months. I kid you not, when we go a 6-month stretch without being hit, taking out a deer, or without backng into something, I start waiting for the shoe to drop.

Cars, as useful and necessary as they are, bring a lot of stress into our lives. I’ve observed it not only in my own life, but in many others as well. We just had an issue with our car this week where it sustained some minor damage from an accident. This came on the coat tails of spending a few hundred bucks on some maintenance on the very same car. It just had me thinking back over my life about how much time, energy, and money cars have eaten up. We’re not talking about Ferrari’s here either, but normal, average cars. I’m not really certain there’s much of a way around it unless we biked or walked everywhere (which sounds even more stressful than owning a car), but it’s interesting that cars have such an impact on our day-to-day, even our livelihood.

The second car I ever owned was a 1997 Dodge Dakota pick-up when I was in High School. I bought it used for about $7,000 and made payments of my own through a part-time job. As fun as that truck was to drive, it made up for it in the problems it gave me. It was a real money-pit. Two different times, Theresa and I (who were dating at the time) were stranded on the side of the highway because it broke down. The first incident was when the transmission went out (in the middle of January) and the second time, the fuel pump went out (on the 4th of July). You can just imagine what the cost of those repairs was. Every couple months something else would go out (a sensor, a hose, the radiator, etc.). It got to the point where I joked (I see a pattern here) because literally every part had been replaced, so there was nothing left to go out.

As a Christian, I like to think closely about what impact’s the Mission in a negative way. Everything we do, especially in buying and selling, should be done with the Mission in mind. I know there are many aspects of my life that are still very similar to non-Christians. I watch many of the same shows and movies, complain about many of the same things, and buy/sell in very similar ways. I would say I’m gradually changing in many of these behaviors, but there are still parts of me that almost enjoy living in such a way. Much of the financial stress (and therefore most of my total stress) comes from cars and houses and indebtedness (i.e, students loans). These things are so normalized in our culture that I wonder if it has created a blind-spot for many Christians? I would love to be debt free. The borrower is slave to the lender (Prov. 22:7).

I can say with 100% certainty that (maybe sometimes unnecessary) financial obligations have been an obstacle of the Mission in my own life. Usually it keeps me from being able to give as abundantly as I want to or could have. These days we are slowly on the road to living below our means. Not just for the sake of living below our means so we can sit around and talk about how awesome we are, but so that we can have something to offer or give. I believe God has called us to be a people that live in such a way; not trying to keep up with the Jones’, like the world.

Do we really need to get into $60,000 worth of debt to get 4-year Philosophy degrees? Or spend $10,000 over 5 years for a timeshare, which is basically a glorified  hotel room that we “own,” but don’t really and end up selling it because we never use it? These are questions I ask myself as I keep getting older and I think they’re worth asking. I’m not saying there’s anything inherently wrong with these kinds of life things. If you go to Branson to see Wayne Newton’s grandson sing show tunes every summer, then by all means, invest in a timeshare. However, these things are worth considering.

As Theresa and I search for a house here in Gainesville, my hope is that we do so in light of these things. Here’s to hoping we don’t walk into a house and choose with our impulses (because we just have to have that awesome fireplace!) and pay $50,000 over our price range. And even if we do buy the house with the awesome fireplace that’s $50,000 over our price range, I’m thankful for God’s grace in all of life’s things and I can be thankful for everything he’s given us. He’s not out to suck the fun out of our lives, but it’s good to remember that the real fun awaits us in the next life.

“1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,
2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,
4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints-
5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” – 2 Corinthians 8:1-5