Cars and Coffee and... Idolatry?

For the past few months, I have been attending Cars and Coffee, a weekly gathering of car enthusiasts.  It is quite a trek, but I didn't mind at first because the cars that I would see each week would make me forget waking up at 5:30 AM and driving 40 miles.

This past Saturday started just like a typical C&C Saturday.  I woke up at 5:30 AM and headed down to Irvine, CA.  The sun was rising and there was nothing good on the radio, so I started to feel philosophical.  I began to reflect on why I make this journey each week.  I started to think about the amount of fuel I consume in driving 80 miles round-trip.  I came to the conclusion that I am spending a fair amount of my money, time, and energy on a 2 hour meeting in a parking lot filled with pieces of metal and rubber.

As you can probably tell from my previous posts, I love cars.  I have always been fascinated by them and I will continue to be fascinated by them.  It is truly amazing how far cars have come in the last 50 years.  It blows my mind to think about what we will be driving 50 years from now.  However, when did cars become such a status symbol and why are we labeled based on what we drive?  The first cars were built purely as a functional tool.  Henry Ford built the first mass-produced car and made it affordable for everyone.  The Model T only came in one color (black) and was purpose-built to move people across great distances.  Fast forward to the 1950's where cars began to have huge wings and larger engines.  Is this where the car became a status symbol?  I am not sure, but I know that by 1950 people began to idolize cars and a car culture was formed.  People began to customize their Chevrolet Bel-Airs and Porsche released road-legal sports cars and Mercedes-Benz defined luxury and on and on we go. 

This idolizing of cars continues in the present day.  We often are identified based on what we drive.  In high school I drove a "beater."  It was a 1997 Dodge Intrepid.  It was huge, it had several dents, and smelled of gasoline.  But none of that mattered, because I loved that car.  Yes, I complained at the time because it was not an Aston Martin or a Porsche or even a new Dodge, but it got me from Point A to Point B.  It drove me back and forth to High School for two years and it drove me to my first day of college.  It accompanied me to my first gigs and it even managed to handle some long-distance driving.  As a car, it did everything that I asked of it.  It kept me safe in all types of weather and it kept hundreds of passengers safe as well (including my 70 year old grandparents who wanted a ride).  It didn't need to be flashy or expensive or fast for me to enjoy that car.

I thought about all of these things as I was making my way south of Los Angeles, passing through Anaheim.  What was I really going down to admire?  Not just a bunch of cars, but status symbols.  I was driving down so that I could try to talk to a smug looking guy with bleach blond hair standing next to his $300,000 limited edition Lamborghini, just so that he could turn around and say that it was his daily driver and it looks great parked next to his Porsche 911 GT3 and his fully-restored 1965 Ford Mustang GT350.  Please, do not misunderstand, I am not bitter.  There are some car owners who work very hard and put countless hours into fixing up old, beautiful cars.  But this is just my point.  Why spend so much time and invest so much energy into something that will eventually breakdown or rust?  This, my friends, is idolatry.

It is the longing for something that will not satisfy.  And I came to this conclusion as I was pulling into Cars and Coffee.  I have made cars into an idol.  I could not wait to drool over the cars that I would see gathered in that massive parking lot.  I would fill my heart with longing after looking at the hundreds of pristine cars and I would start to fantasize about owning my own beautiful car someday.  But I have forgotten that I own a beautiful car right now!  It is a 2006 Lancer ES and it has driven across the US in order to bring me to LA.  It is a wonderful car and yet, it would not be allowed into a C&C meeting.  Why not?  Because it is plain.  I think that we should celebrate our cars that get us safely from A to B.  After all, that's the sole reason why cars were built in the first place.  To help people, not to go 0-60 in under 4 seconds.

Again, I am not bashing sports cars, I just think that we place a little too much of our hearts into these things.  I still really enjoy reading about cars and I will continue to work on my "car lust."  I still want an Aston Martin... and a Porsche... and a 1973 Dodge Charger Rallye...

I am realizing where I need to keep my hope and trust and consequently, I have decided to only go to C&C once a month.  This will save some money and help focus my heart and mind on what really matters.

In conclusion, let's be thankful for the cars in our lives that make life easier.  Let us remember the car's basic function.  And let us remember these words:

"In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die
Where you invest your love, you invest your life"- "Awake My Soul" by Mumford and Sons

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."- Matthew 6:21

1997 Dodge Intrepid

2003 Oldsmobile Alero

2006 Mitsubishi Lancer ES