As it does with many boys, my fascination with the automobile started early. I remember going on a two-week vacation with my family to the Grand Canyon when I was around ten years old and during that trip I can vividly remember starting to notice all of the different makes and models of cars on the road around me for the first time. I noticed their shapes and proportions, their colors and especially the way they looked as they traversed the roads around my families camper-shell pickup that was our vacation vehicle that year. By the end of the trip I had even began to memorize which company made what car based only on a quick look at a certain car as it went by. For some reason I enjoyed this process and to some degree, I still do.
As I got a little bit older and a little bit more interested in the cars around me, I started gravitating towards books and magazines that talked about them and discussed them in detail. I had conversations with my friends about them and even found some local kindred spirits in my church youth group who were driving and restoring old Mustangs. Needless to say, I was very enthusiastic about what they were doing and it wasn’t too long before my Dad and I had purchased our own Mustang project car to work on (a 68 coupe).
This fascination with the automobile and appreciation of all of the work that goes in to each different type has only gotten stronger over time. I would go so far as to say that it is one of my favorite topics and at this point in my life I would readily identify myself as a “car-person”. And as a “car-person” I actively seek out other car people in real life and on the internet to see and hear about their projects and about the vehicles that they are driving and enjoying. Coming in to this year, being a car person had become a strong part of my identity. And the Lord started to speak to me about that, and what that meant for me.
As a child of God, my real identity is that of a blood-washed, born-again saint. The Bible says it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me. My flesh and its desires are to be crucified and put to death and my first and greatest love must always be Jesus. So I had to ask myself some hard questions. Do I seek out my brothers and sisters in Christ, because of our shared identity, as readily as I do car people? Do I want to hear their testimonies and learn about what God is doing in their lives as much as I want to know what it feels like to drive the new Shelby GT350 Mustang? Hmmm. The fact of the matter is, there shouldn’t even be a comparison here. Jesus is always better than _______! (fill in the blank with whatever it is that you love the most).
We all have our own likes and dislikes. We all have those things that put a sparkle in our eye and that we naturally gravitate towards. Hobbies and past-times can be good, constructive things if they are used in the way that God intended and are kept in subjection to His authority and will for our lives. But our identities should never be tied up in things of this earth. Be it a career or trade, a title or position, a possession or a hobby or anything else that isn’t Christ Jesus. We are so much better than that!
God made us to be His children, joint heirs with our Savior, inheritors of every spiritual blessing and the abundant life that can be had when we live and walk in His Spirit. When we tie our identities to earthly things and let them define us, we settle for less than God intended. I urge you not to make that mistake. Be very sure of what defines you and where your identity lies. And if you aren’t sure, ask God. He will help you to see and to understand with just what it means to be a child of the one true King.