Why Is My Car In Your Parking Lot?

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)

Have you ever bought a new car, and the moment you drive it off the lot you start to see your same car everywhere you look? You go to the grocery store, the same one you’ve been going to for years, and suddenly everyone else has your same exact car! This experience is called the “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.” Once you have focused on something specific, you begin to see that something everywhere.

Isn’t that how it is in our spiritual lives? We hear a sermon on Sunday about kindness, or giving, and the next week we do a great job showing kindness or maybe we even buy somebody’s lunch. But as the days go by, and we lose our focus, we don’t see opportunities to show kindness or give like we did that first week. We can see this pattern over and over again in our lives. If you’ve ever bought a new house and you’re anything like me, you binge watch shows on HGTV for design ideas. Our thinking becomes a snowball of what we feed ourselves. If we’re not careful, days turn into weeks, turn into years, and we realize we have been filling our hearts and minds with earthly things. And if our minds and hearts are filled only with earthly things, there is no room left for spiritual things.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with cars or HGTV. In fact, that’s the sinister nature of the whole thing. We can easily deceive ourselves with these “good” things because they are not inherently sinful like pornography or something like that. But any time our hearts become consumed with anything other than the Lord, it can quickly become sin. Let us renew our minds, and renew our focus so that we may walk in all the blessings the Lord has prepared for us.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

-Chad