To Buy or Not to Buy

I do not believe that God gives wealth, health, happiness or prosperity to people because they follow him. I believe that all good things come from the Father of Lights. And I believe that sometimes those good things will be wealth, health, happiness or prosperity. But not always. And they are not the exclusive property of people who praise God. Our Pastor's email update spoke a little bit about this. But what makes me think about it right now is my impulsive decision to get a minivan.

I keep comparing this new purchase (and the Dave Ramsey disapproval that comes with it) to our decision as a church body to build a new building.

Our church leadership and congregation made the decision to build a new church for many of the same reasons we got a new car this week. The other one is old. (The church is ten times older than the car, or course.) The oldness means there are aggravating maintenance issues. Some of those issues are a real concern when you think about the building/car functioning for the next number of years. Both were too small for our projected family growth. Both keep falling apart around our ears. The church has plumbing, electrical, and design troubles. The car had electrical problems (fixed those) and design flaws. We can't open the drivers side door of the car and it has already been "fixed" twice.

As a church we decided that God would and could provide our small, lower middle class congregation with the 2+ million dollars it would cost to build a new building. Two million dollars. And it won't even have a finished kitchen or Sunday School classes. We all recognize that that much money is small potatoes to God, even the the most frequent prayer request shared is un and underemployment.

I am on board with the building because...I have to be part of the team. I am scared of the project and question the wisdom of it. It seems to me that a God that can give us lots of money can also make our hundred year old building last a thousand years. It seems to me just as easy to do the one as the other. And it seems a very American thing to expect the money answer and not the preservation answer. It sometimes seems like we are building the new building because the old one is just plain aggravation.

And speaking of aggravating, that was the old car. I was pretty impulsive, purchasing the minivan. I did it because I had had it with accepting God's provision of my little car. It is a perfectly acceptable form of transportation for my family as my family exists right now. It runs just fine. I did not have cash to buy the car.

I am not foling myself and thinking "God gave me a good buy so I had to do it!" I don't think, "God will always provide enough for us to make the payments on this car 'till it is paid off." I do not think that a new car will make our lives better. It does make it less aggravating though.

I do think, "there will be things that we can't do now, because we have a car payment." One of those things might be pre-school for my daughter next year. Another is certainly the building fund. As a part of accepting that the church was going through with the project I had committed in may heart to give generously to it. I want to see it all-the-way finished. Are payment are comfortable, if not small. But they do cut into our ability to give.

I'm just processing the process I started. I am keenly aware of the irony that exists with my attitude about the building project and my jumping into a new (to me) car. I have five more days to make up my mind about it. But I am sure we will keep it. I am not sure that it is the wisest thing to do. I am sure it is the American thing to do. Wise and American don't always go hand in hand. Wise and Me don't always go hand in hand either.