Everyday I have to drive to Littleton to drop off Lydia and go to the seminary for work and to a coffee shop* for my thesis. This means that I see SUVs galore. Billions of SUVs. The only people who don't drive SUVs are some people who appear to be my age and high schoolers. I hate SUVs so bad. Times a hundred. So bad X a hundred = more than most things. I especially hate the giant long ones. Chevy Suburbans are probably my number one. Arg.
In the midst of all these houses on wheels, it got me thinking, we should only be allowed to have reasonable cars. That then led me to think, we are allowed to get these "cars" because of freedom. This then led to thinking about the free will God gives us. He is really nice and trusting, because SUVs show that when we are allowed to make a free choice, we almost always botch it up. We make the worst decisions. With the array of vehicles out there we pick giant beasts that destroy the environment and give us an invicibility complex (in case you're wondering, yes I am speaking metaphorically now, but also literally). We could be responsible, but we waste our money and the earth's resources to have an ugly piece of garbage larger than the first space shuttles. So thousand thanks to God for free will, because I'm pretty sure you knew we would abuse it and make stupid self-destructive decisions. That is not meant to be sarcastic. I'm saying God is amazing to love and trust us so much for the possibility of us making good decisions, even though he "knows" we won't.
This also made me think of a classic I keep coming back to. I get super-judgmental of SUV-owners and think, I'm glad I don't use all the gas they use. But then, my car does still use gas. And, not often, but sometimes I drive at higher rpms to get better acceleration, which is a major gas-burner. This points to the bigger issue of me constantly comparing myself to other people. Like with my thesis, I have slacked off too much, but I have a friend who has slacked off more, so I feel alright about it. But I have another friend who was dedicated and is graduating on time. Then I feel not alright about myself. This is sort of a silly example, but I do this with all kinds of stuff. I feel a burden to help the marginalized in my city, so I do a little to help. But I feel good about it when I compare myself to a bunch of my friends who don't do anything. But then I feel bad when I compare myself to my friends who do way more than me. So I think my canon should be Jesus, but then I get to feel bad 100% of the time. I guess that's why grace is so excellent. And I guess this means I just need to buy a trailer for my bike so Lydia can ride in there and I can start biking again. There's a good american solution...buy something to fix the problem.
*Side note - While I was typing this, I accidentally typed coffee ship. That would be awesome. Not a boat, because we already have those. But a coffee space ship. You could fly up and hang out with coffee and other people who like coffee. Bring along a few books to read. My favorite coffee shop days are rainy, but maybe I would like space days better. I don't know, actually I would probably take rain over space.
1 comment:
hey buddy,
thanks for your post (sorry that we bought an SUV, but it is small and gets the best gas mileage of SUV's which I guess is the way to make myself feel better). When we were in Europe a month ago it was amazing how few large cars exist in that place. Even the big cars are really fuel efficient because they are so light and don't have all the extra chocolate chips that are in cars in the U.S. Smart cars are the most amazing thing, they can park perpendicularly (is that a word?)into parallel spots. Hooray!
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