There was a time just a few years ago when if I wanted to go to a car show
it was a where and when, as so many were offered. But times have changed, and
the owners who once paid a fee to enter, now participate in cruise nights, or
get together for breakfast, with no admission fees and can gather with their
friends. Money saved and and rich fellowship without worrying about having
their cars scratched and being told where to park and when you can enter and
when you can leave. Escondido has a huge Cruisin’ Grand, but it too is losing
steam of late, the number of cars dwindling, and participant number falling
also. Seems once you have seem the local cars for week after week, you long for
a different mix, seeing different cars. We even just cruise it
occasionally....with non-pre-1974 cars parked where signs once warned of for
pre-1974 cars only. So even cruise nights are changing, and what was new once
is just old...like the cars.
But needing a turnaround point this Sunday to eat lunch, we rode up to
Tustin to the Enderle Center Car Show, its 21st year. Now Orange County means
big bucks, and the cars did not disappoint. But like any car show, it is
looking a the cars and letting them take you back to a former time you remember
them by, and the memories flow into words, into sentences, into stories. Maybe
not the most collectible, but the most memorable. Like the 1975 Pinto station
wagon, taking me back to our 1971 Pinto, green outside and green vinyl
everything inside. With many standing around telling their mates a story or
two. A clean 1965 Mustang with the top down, how many of those would you have
just died for when a kid? A 1960 Dodge Power Wagon 4x4, a Tonka truck in real
life. Proving you don’t need speed to be cool. A 1963 Studebaker pickup with
two Columbia bikes in the bed. Our wheels when the truck was new. A 1969
Chevelle SS, the same green as the ones at my high school, cool then, cool now.
A pristine 1952 Chevy, an old car that only the old people on my block drove
back then. A 1968 Firebird 400 reminded me of Cathy’s, except hers was red with
a four speed. That you didn’t power shift because the linkage would hang up,
many sights of her waist long hair sticking out from underneath, a lady who knew
her car. And drove it accordingly. A Vista Cruiser wagon a father telling his
son were popular when he grew up, another father and son discussion on 1932-37
Ford V-8’s. Conversations you weren’t part of, or even eavesdropping on, just
part of what was going on. Two Nash Metropolitans, parked next to two Austin
Healeys, a 3000 and a Sprite. Memories of both...all four Made in England.
Even some older VW Beetles, with one 1967 in great shape for $20,000. Has the
price of memories gone that high too? Did I mention the 1965 Pontiac 2+2, wheel
covers removed, like we would have t make it look like a racer? Or the 1966
Chevelle wagon like my Aunt’s? Or.....
Do I remember my early days of being a Christian the same way? I remember
Bible studies that were about the application not the educational facts. Some
nights just praying, some just singing and worshipping as the spirit led. Maybe
breaking off with a friend and praying or listening or sharing what God had done
for them that week. It was all about Jesus, with him more important than the
study, with no set time to end, or set agenda. Just Jesus.....as if we needed
anything else.
But we had been studying a Campus Crusade series on gifts of the spirit, a
great course and challenging for us younger Christians. It was exciting seeing
how God worked in others lives, and we wanted all that God had to offer. But on
one Friday night John Duffy and I couldn’t be tied down to a specific gift as
the others were. And leaving well after midnight, I was taking him home through
the university ghetto when we came upon a bad car accident. Police barricades,
ambulances, spotlights set up, it looked like a war zone. But finding a place
to stop, we both got out, walked through the barricade, past the police, and
stopped while a victim was being loaded into an ambulance. His stomach
distended, his face showing the pain, John and I laid hands on him and began to
pray, as the attendants stopped and respected us. We then walked back to the
car, and I dropped John off both of us never saying a word. Some church folk may
comment “not bad for two guys with no spiritual gifts,” but why limit God? He
gives us gifts to be healed, and then to see others healed. To be taught and
then teach, to be shown hospitality then invite others to join in, to get our
lives in him organized than help others, and to live like Acts 2:42 shows us,
giving and sharing, with Jesus as the reason. With everyday, every night
different and exciting. That night we were led to serve and pray for the man, I
never heard what happened to him, but at that time we were called to pray and we
did. The barriers opening and God leading. By his spirit...not by any
teaching. Do you limit what the spirit can do in your life by teachings? By
lack of application? By following a guideline instead of the spirit? Jesus was
a rebel, and those who follow him by his spirit will always be true rebels in
the church. Or you can read about it instead of living him....
The life of a Christian is meant to be a fun filled exciting one. God
never sleeps or slumbers, yet many Christians have become bored again instead of
born again. Same old songs, same old messages, even able to tell by their watch
if there is time for one more song, or when the collection is taken. If you are
stuck in a rut, there is a way out. For just like car shows can bring back
memories, so can God. He can breathe life into a life that is on life support,
give hope and a future to one who has none, and be a friend when you have none.
He goes beyond the written word, and by his spirit will take you places no
religion can. Sometimes it is as simple enough as daydreaming on him, the Bible
calls it meditating and letting him fill your heart. He wants you to have all
the joys of knowing him, not just knowing all about him. Like the car show, the
facts became stories that came from memories that were shared. Maybe it is time
for you and Jesus to just get out and live! Walk with a younger believer and
share like we do at car shows, passing on memories making the old metal seem
real and alive. Just like Jesus is, fresh and alive!
We do not know what today brings, but God does, and we can be prepared when
we are in Christ. John and I would not be pinned down to one fruit that night,
we wanted the whole fruit salad God offered, and then shared it. No word on the
man we prayed for, not even mentioned in the paper. Unnoticed by man, but not
by God. Religion binds, the spirit is free. If only the cars had as much value
as what God offers us for nothing. No matter the situation we can get more from
it with Jesus. God heals and forgives....and the price of the restoration is
free. He uses all things for his glory....who would have thought a walk through
a car show would be all about Jesus?
The parable of the cars remembered at Enderle....and of a night riding home
from a Bible study. Only in Jesus will it ever make any sense.......I hope it
does to you.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com