It’s OK to own things but when things own you they lose their ability to bring joy. Sometimes you have to take unusual measures to keep things from taking over your life. Sheldon and Davy VanAuken knew that.
Sheldon tells how he and his wife kept free from worshipping things. He included the story in a book he wrote twenty years after Davy’s death. It is a beautiful true-life love story called A Severe Mercy. Sheldon and his wife Davy dreamed of owning an MG-TD Two-seater. They longed to drive through the Virginia mountains under a full moon with the top down and their dog Flurry in the back. When they were able to buy the car of their dreams the first thing they did was take a hammer and put a big dent in the fender. They wanted to enjoy the car and not worry continually about taking care of it.
Last summer I was preaching and made a reference to an MG-TD Two-seater. A man in the congregation offered to give me a ride in his after church that evening. It was a neat experience. I imagined taking Lois for a ride in the mountains of Kentucky under the full moon some warm summer evening. Maybe I will add that to my little book of “Reasons to Get Up in the Morning.”
