Suzie vs. Husband

Suzie vs. Husband

By Suzie M.

My husband and I are in the process of buying a “new” vehicle.  When we first began this process I was all excited because after driving my car for the past 10 years I was finally getting a new car!  Well, the wind was quickly knocked out of my sail.

This Christian walk thing is hard.  Sometimes, I want to act like a four year old and stomp my feet and whine to get my way.

My husband and I were not on the same page when we began our car buying process.  We had decided that we really needed to get a minivan.  We have three girls with lots of stuff and friends and my Explorer is getting very cramped.  Well I was thinking new leather seats, moon roof, DVD player the whole works.  I had been praying about a new vehicle for a while knowing both our cars were aging quickly.  I thought, “God is totally answering my prayers!”  We drive our cars for a long time so a new car makes total sense right?

I had it all worked out in my mind.  There are more details but they aren’t important to this story.  As we began discussing the car situation we immediately realized we were on two totally different levels.  He said ok let’s look at some used Odysseys and the Kias.  Well I made sure to let him know that his idea did not make any sense at all and I wanted to only look at the new Odysseys.  I was not driving a Kia for heaven’s sake and have you looked at the price of a used vehicle, well you might as well buy new, in my mind.  Like I said, I had been praying about this and I felt like this was an answered prayer but the Kia was not what I had in mind.

Needless to say God has a plan for everything.  Luckily His ways are not my ways. After a weekend of tears, being mad at one another, calling my godly friend who I knew would see things my way, lots of prayers and bible time, the Lord hit me over the head with a two by four.

This story came up two days in a row in two different bible studies and in two different books of the bible.  Mark and Luke, the story of “The Rich Young Man” (Mark 10:17-31), the rich man asks Jesus how he can inherit eternal life and Jesus responds with following the commandments, he says I already do that but Jesus came back with “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor…then come follow me.”  The rich man can’t do it.  Jesus tells us, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

Ouch!!!  Then the Proverb for the day in my One Year Bible was “One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.”  Proverbs 13:7

You think God is trying to tell me something?  Oh yeah!  I could hear Him loud and clear.  You see, we really don’t have the money to take on a big car payment and we don’t have enough cash to buy a fancy new car I had my eyes on.  However I like nice things, I like expensive things and I try to pretend like we have all this money when we don’t.

Ok Suzie, get out the white flag.  It’s time to surrender.  Even as slow as I am I knew God was telling me to surrender this whole car issue and let my husband be the one to make the tough decision.  He knows what we can take on financially and I was trying to manipulate him and the entire situation.  If I hadn’t given this up we could end up in a bad financial situation.  I called him at work and told him I was sorry and I would drive whatever he decided that this was his decision.  He was so thankful.  He told me he wanted to cry.  By surrendering this I took a huge weight off his shoulders because my husband thinks the world of me and he would do whatever it takes to make me happy.

To surrender is to humble yourself.   Jesus completely surrendered himself to the Father to the point of death.  In that perspective this car seems so silly.  Really, what eternal value is there in what kind of car I drive?  Instead of buying the most expensive car I could buy a used lesser expensive one and use the saved money for eternal use or wherever the Lord leads.  It’s pride.  Pride is a messy, ugly sin and abhorred by the Lord.  I am a mess and make a mess of much, but my Father in Heaven loves me too much.  That’s why he lovingly disciplines me with His Word.  He uses it to prune and refine me.  It can be a painful process but the rewards last forever and that is longer and better than any car on the market.

Challenge:  What do you need to surrender today?  What in your life is not lining up with God’s will?  This is a process, let God work through you.  I am right here with you.  To surrender daily sometimes hourly is God’s will for you and me. I am praying for us all to not just pray for our problems and decisions but to surrender them! 

“Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7