December 7, 2003

The eastern sky has horizontal stripes of lavender and pink. And second by second, the whole southeast section of the sky begins to glow as Urbana’s spot on the earth spins into the sun’s light.

The first thing I did this morning was check to see if the car was in the driveway. Alison gets off work a little before midnight and then goes out with friends who also get off work a little before midnight. Since I live with two college students, it seems as though someone at our house is always up. And since we have more drivers than cars, someone is always waiting for wheels. So the first thing I did when I got up was to look out the bedroom window to see if I’d be driving or walking to church this morning. I’ll be driving.

A report hit the newspapers this past month that there are now more cars than licensed drivers in the United States. This factoid suddenly makes our family weird—in this culture. The article I read indicated that some people now have "mood" cars. A fellow in California reported that he has one car for work, one car for dating, and one car for recreation. I, on the other hand, simply redecorate the one car I have—depending on the mood. When it is a family car, the kids help by filling it with school supplies, food wrappers, laundry, and recreational equipment. The next day, I jump out and lift arm loads of ‘stuff’ into the back and—presto, there’s room in the front seat to take friends to lunch. An hour later, I throw some notebooks into the backseat and—presto, it’s a work car.

And since we have more drivers than cars in our family, each of us has a self interest in getting along with each other—for the most part.

It’s an irony. You’d think that abundance would lead us toward sharing—not away from it. When the girls were little, they shared a bedroom. Then they decided that they were big enough to each have their own room, so Alison moved into the guest room. Prior to that date in history, they shared things with each other. After that date, they stole things from each other. Nothing really changed—except how we all thought about things.

These days, we have our own rooms, our own cars, our own TVs, our own food, etc. And I’m not entirely sure we’re better off. It is a fact—as people become more wealthy, the less percentage of their income they give to charity. We apparently don’t HAVE to share. When one has two cars and three drivers in the family, one HAS to share. One even has to be nicer to friends and co-workers. Life is still at a point where we need each other.

In the church, we know that material security is an illusion. No matter how much we have, we know that we DO need each other, and we need God. So even if your family came to church in four different cars this morning, welcome back to reality. No amount of stuff ever substitutes for our relation with God and each other. Indeed. --Mike