This will be long, so please, bear with me. I need to tell you what Paul Harvey used to call “the rest of the story.”

Let me start with a few follow-ups from last Sunday’s message in our Money Matters series. First, I do not now, nor have I ever, owned a 2022 Range Rover. Apparently the joke from Sunday about me splurging to buy one confused a few people, who missed the punchline. Obviously, those were people who do not know me well, or they would have understood I had to be kidding. Did I mention I am cheap?

Secondly, I referenced that we had not had a car payment since 1985—well, “except for three months of stupid in 1993, and I am still paying for that.” I suggested that if you wanted the rest of that story, you should probably ask my wife, but several people came to me on Sunday and wanted to hear it from me. With that in mind, I will not leave the rest of you in the dark, though I will leave out a few ugly details, so as not to incriminate myself too much.

The first part of the story is a correction. I did the math and realized it was actually in 1992. We had three small children, and two small cars. We had made the commitment to live debt-free not long after we were married, and had kept that commitment for seven years, including a few car purchases we made with cash. More than anything, it was a point of trusting God to provide for our needs and not getting ahead of Him through the shortcut of debt.

But with a new baby we started thinking that maybe we needed a mini-van, since all the cool kids were getting them then, and we went down to a local dealership to shop for a used one. We knew we didn’t have enough money in the bank to purchase one, so really the only way we could buy one would be financing it. But we really didn’t want to talk about that.

We did try to look for something we could “afford,” and I settled on a Dodge Caravan that was several years old. But there was one problem; it was missing the back bench seat. Which meant it only had the front two seats and the middle bench seat, and therefore only five seatbelts. It was cheaper, so I was interested, though my dear wife and mother of my children was concerned because that was all the seating it had. And as we began our test drive, with the salesman in the car with us, she asked, “What if we have another child?”

I wondered, out loud, and somewhat sarcastically, why we would be buying a vehicle for a child we didn’t have. I mean, what kind of crazy person would have more than three kids anyway? And then, as we continued our test drive, I got more sarcastic as I mocked the “invisible child” in the back we needed a seat for. Let’s just say I was not very nice through the process—because I had made up my mind that we “needed” this new old van, even if we had to compromise our values to get it. And in the end, “we” decided to buy that van anyway, trading in one of our cars, and financing the purchase.  

Fast forward a month or so down the road. The van was fine, we had made our first payment, but then were surprised by the news that my wife was unexpectedly expecting, again. Yes, the “invisible child” was coming to live with us! And already, she didn’t have a seat to sit in, in either of our vehicles. At least we had seven or eight months to figure out what we were going to do about that.

A few months later, an older lady in our church came up to my wife after a service and asked her what we were driving, knowing that we were now expecting our fourth child. My wife told her we were in a van with five seats, and trying to figure out what to do next. A few weeks later, that same lady came to my office for a surprise visit. I only really knew her by name; she had been very private as she visited our church plant by herself, but had talked about how the Lord had worked in her life since she started attending. After a little small talk in my office, she said, “I would like to give you a new van.” I am sure my mouth fell wide open. For the first time, I put together who she was, from her last name, since it matched the name of a prominent auto dealership just down the road. She was the namesake’s wife. 

I told her we couldn’t take a new van from her. But I talked to my wife about it later, and eventually, after a little negotiation on both sides, we finally agreed to take a like-new year-old van as a gift from her. They even allowed us to trade in our van with the missing seat, and our debt and payments went away.

That was the “three months of stupid,” and I am still paying for that, not because I owe a car finance company, but because my wife remembers well my mocking about the invisible child and my willingness to compromise our commitment to get that van. It was a good lesson to learn, though it was no fun in the process. Mainly, it was a reminder that God knows where we are and He has at His disposal all the resources in the world to provide for us, if we will only trust Him and wait on Him. When we try to control things we often get ahead of God and presume on our future through debt, and in the process we rob ourselves of the blessing of seeing His handiwork and His manna-like provision in our lives. And since then, we have seen Him bless us in similar ways so many times when we are willing to wait on Him.

Now, I know some of you are thinking that kind of thing only happens to pastors, but that’s not true. I have seen and heard so many such stories of God miraculously coming through for His children, including many of you in our church family. Perhaps it happens more for those who are desperate enough that they have to trust God, which isn’t a bad place to be anyway. I’m just thankful the Lord got us out of that mess and taught us such an important lesson in the process.

So here are a few applications: Trust God. Resist the urge to try to control things. Wait on the Lord. Stick to your commitments. Don’t be mean to your wife. And live prayerfully and expectantly to see what the Lord wants to do in you and for you as you place your faith in Him.

Now, you know the rest of the story. Blessings to all. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

--Pastor Ken