It was white with blue interior. It had blue pinstripes running down the side
with the words CAMARO spelled out on the bottom of the door. Man, I loved that car. It was a 1981 Camaro Berlinetta. I drove it until it just wouldn’t drive no
more. For years I dreamed of restoring
it, but never had the time or the money to do so. Regularly, people would stop by and offer
money for this machine that sat in the driveway. Nobody ever offered enough. I mean, sure they offered more than what its
Blue Book value was, but they never could offer what this car was worth to
me. It was the first car I bought
myself. I worked hard for this sports
car. I remember well the jobs I worked
and the sweat I spilled in order to pay this car off. Nobody, and I mean nobody, could truly
understand the price I paid for that car and what it was worth to me. The investment I made in this car went far
beyond the monthly payments I mailed in and the total amount of money I paid
for it. Over the course of four years, I
invested much of my life working and sweating to pay that car off.
While someone might drive by and see a rust bucket sitting
in the driveway worth a few hundred dollars, they failed to see the real price
paid for that rust bucket. Yes, I know
that the resale value of a car goes down with age, but that doesn’t change its
original worth or the high price that was once paid for it.
You may be thinking as you read this I must be in a bit of a
melancholy mood this morning as I write.
Actually, that’s not true. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve
been doing a lot of thinking. I’ve been
thinking of our culture and the world we live in. I’ve been watching the dialog, the debates,
and the rhetoric. I’ve been watching as
I see a polarization between differing ideologies. I’ve been observing the growing tensions
between this group and that group. I’ve
found myself scratching my head trying to figure out what in the world is going
on.
So, what does all this have to do with my Camaro? Stay with me, and I think I can tie it all
in. In the days of the early church,
Paul was trying to explain God’s free gift of grace to Roman believers. In his letter to them he writes, “What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any
longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2 NKJV). Paul
is making a point, because, many of them didn’t get it. Sure, they had been given an incredible gift
from God that didn’t cost them anything, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t come
without a price. As believers, when we
fail to recognize and value the enormous price that was paid for our salvation,
it leads to a very immature approach to Christian living. When we do that, like those early believers in
Rome, we have a cheap view of grace that affords us an excuse to continue
living life as usual instead of truly liberated which is what grace has made
available for us. Sure, salvation is
free to us, but Jesus paid a hefty price in order to secure it for us. If the first century church struggled with
this concept, rest assured those of us that are 2000 years removed from the
crucifixion are going to struggle with it as well. Is it any wonder why Jesus instructed the
disciples to remember Him every time they sat down and broke bread together? Could it be that Jesus understood, if we fail
to realize that the freedom He secured for us came at such a hefty price, that
we would not value that freedom appropriately?
I think He understood that very well.
I also think He knew that this incorrect valuation of that freedom would
result in living far below the quality of life that freedom was designed to
afford us. He also understood that this
would prevent us from being thankful for what we’ve been given and catapult us
into an entitlement paradigm where we would become more focused on our rights
than our responsibilities.
I love my country. I
love the fact that I live in the land of the free and the home of the
brave. I love freedom. I didn’t do anything to warrant be born
here. I’ve done nothing to earn my
freedom, purchase it, or secure it. I’m
free because somebody else did all that for me.
Somebody spilled their blood for my freedom. Somebody grew up without a dad or a mom or a
husband or a brother or a sister so that I could have freedom. Today there are those who are serving in the
military who are consistently away from their families for long periods of
time, so that I can stay at home with mine.
It’s extremely easy for me and everybody else who has been blessed with
so much to lose sight of just how pricey our freedom was and is.
Many years ago, a group of men and women risked everything
to come to this land. They had no
guarantees. They wanted freedom so bad
they were willing to pay whatever price was required to get it. They were willing to leave everything behind
and replace it with uncertainty, danger, and enormous risk all for the chance
of freedom. Perhaps they were only
thinking of themselves, but somehow I think it was more than that. I think that just maybe they were thinking of
their children and their children’s children.
I know that every day I think of what life is going to be like for my
children in 25 or 30 years. Again, it’s
easy for us a couple centuries later to read about what they did without seeing
the true value in what they did and the extreme price they paid.
Today we have a generation where many people walk through
life with absolutely no idea of what the price tag of freedom is. They enjoy its benefits but fail to recognize
its cost. They do not care about nor
appreciate the sacrifices of former generations that have laid freedom in their
lap. We should not think it strange when
their actions are consistent with that truth.
Because that freedom has cost them nothing, then the valuation of that
freedom has become tainted. As a result,
they do not value this freedom as something sacred, or worth preserving. If we’ve made a mistake it has been that we
have failed to communicate that what they have been given wasn’t free at all. We’ve failed to communicate to them that what
is free to them cost somebody else something very valuable. While we kick back in our comfortable living
rooms, watching our big screen TVs, in our air conditioned houses, we have
failed to follow the model that Jesus gave the disciples to constantly remember
the enormous price that was paid for our freedom. Every opportunity we get we
need to dialog about that. We need to communicate
that to our children and our children’s children. We need to raise up a generation of young
people who have thankful hearts rather than a sense of entitlement.
Have I mentioned how much I loved my Camaro? Well, I no longer have my Camaro. I parted with it after many years. And no, I did not get anywhere near what it
was worth to me. Sure, it had some rust on it and needed a lot of work, but
that didn’t change the price I paid for it.
Like my Camaro, America has some huge negatives. Rust, if you will. Greed, division, class warfare, controlling
spirits, corruption, selfishness, etc.
Still with all that rust, it doesn’t change the price that was paid for
it.
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