As kid I was excited at the back of the magazines. This is where the
advertisements would be for all the neat things you would want to put on your
first car or motorcycle-provided you could wait until the teen years to attain
one. These ads would promise a free catalog and a decal-in these pre-sticker
days, and all you had to do was send in a quarter, carefully taped over the
round quarter sized image on the form, put it in an envelope, put on a 4 cent
stamp, and then wait the weeks for your prize to arrive. But what to put your
sticker on? Dad's Rambler? One time I ended up putting a Cheerful Charlie
Speed Shop sticker on his VW-the only thing cool about any VW as far as I could
tell, and which elevated my 12 year old status among my friends, wow, your Dad
is cool. Oh, the good old days.
I remember decorating my walls with 24x36 prints from Plymouth-full color
of their performance cars, Road Runner, Barracuda, etc, with cartoon drawings of
the real cartoon road runner on them and the likes. All for that 25 cent
handling charge. Why did I ever get rid of them? How about the cut away views
of Indy and Formula One race cars I got from Shell, same price. Only a young
fool would have thrown them out, no old fools in that department I hope. Hooker
Header stickers, Bell Helmet, the wicked woodpecker of Clay Smith Cams, and
those Powered by Ford blue decals-all so cool, and all used up, tore off, and
thrown away. All for 25 cents plus a stamp-maybe the best 30 cents a kid could
spend, better than three Archie comics with Betty and Veronica! Well, each one
had its benefits, let's see, how about B and V on in a Road Runner? Wearing a
Bell Helmet t-shirt? Help, I fell those teen hormones kicking in!
But the ad I never responded too, never read it either, was the one of
urban legend status. It read "last chance to send in your dollar!" then gave a
PO box somewhere. The legend goes on to tell that this one act made millions
for its author based upon the greed of those who read it and responded. Last
chance for what? And a whole dollar? That would come right out of my sticker
fund? No way-anyway the legend would be repeated next month, in case you missed
it this month. But to me the best deal for my quarter was in Cycle magazine,
where for 25 cents I could circle all the ad numbers I wanted and get mucho ads
and decals. With only a little fudging of info asked, yes I'm over 21, I own
this many and brands of motorcycles, and will be buying a new one within 30
days. Now...get them decals coming! Which explains why so many of my Cycle
magazine collection is missing part of that page-oh if I only had something to
show for it now.
A quarter used to be a lot of money, and money used to talk. Remember how
impressed you were when some guy would pull out a wad of cash? No more, as
things, and times have changed. Years ago my friend Ted wanted to buy a Wendy's
franchise, so he called them up. When he asked how much, they weren't concerned
about how much cash he had in the bank, but were more interested in his credit
line. So he referred them to his dad, who was president of the bank they
owned. How much credit did he need? When we moved west and wanted to buy a
home, we had worked hard to pay off everything, no car payments, all credit card
balances zero, and had saved some cash. Which all backfired when we applied, it
seems they want you to have outstanding credit, it shows you pay your bills on
time, and we were advised to go buy a car or use the credit cards. And you
wonder where we went wrong economically? No longer was cash king, your FICA
score talked, and soon it wasn't what you had, but what you could borrow that
was important. And no one sent in quarters any more for stickers. And Cycle
magazine went away, a victim of the times.
God tells us to owe no man nothing. It is not so much the payment He has
trouble with, it is the debt that ruins relationships He emphasizes. For
whoever you owe money to has power over you, or you have power over them. He
tells it is better to give it as a gift and forget about it than to be a lender
or borrower. Which I learned when I lent money to my best friend once to buy a
house, and soon he missed payment by a few days, and we both knew it. And it
created friction, not so much between us, but when his wife's ego was damaged
because of it, we soon lost our great relationship. And the two friends went
separate ways. And I was out of over $2000! Lesson learned, maybe God does
know something about finances.
And so He warns us not to fall prey to those who beg for money on TV and
then promise monetary rewards. "Send in a seed faith donation, and God will
reward you." If you really wanted the blessing, aka the money they promised,
set up such a deal yourself! But just as Jesus warns of these types, so many
still fall prey to them. It seems the poor are the worst, and are taken
advantage of more often. Why would you trust a man who needs money from you to
be rich when you can go to God directly who is? Whose credit line is without
limit, who pays in cash, doesn't need a credit card, or debit card, and meets
all your needs? He doesn't even have a checking account, based on today's
economy, would you lend to Him? Figure in how His son Jesus never even owned
property and had no place of His own, would you cash His check?
But yet so many sign up for what He can do monetarily, not what He has done
to give us life. He forgives, try that with your bank. "Sorry MasterCard, I
need food this month." Credit may get you out of a hole, but it also will get
you into a hole. So give the Master Charge of your life. Give instead of
loaning, and become a debtor to no man. Always buy the first round as the crowd
only gets larger, and give hilariously, wanting to not being forced to. For 25
cents we got a great deal, but as we get older we want more and more expensive
things. Start with Jesus, and He'll provide. After the gift of eternal life,
notice I said gift, you can't earn it or buy it, everything else loses it
value. You cannot buy your way into heaven, but you can send riches ahead-so
give!
A sticker in the late 60's at A&P, a grocery chain now bankrupt, said
"Optical illusion, 100 cents = $1." What illusion are you living under today?
The things that are seen are temporal, the things not seen are eternal. In God
I trust, all others use bank cards. What's in your wallet? It may tell us more
of what is in your heart than you want us to know.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com