I need a different DAVE. My flesh imagines I would be happier with a different car. But I already HAVE a great car, and it hasn’t made me content. I need a different DAVE. A Dave who is CONTENT with the car he HAS, with the body he has, with the maturity he has, with the health he has, with the savings he has, with the LIFE he has. How can I get a different Dave? Impossible for me to make happen. I’ve TRIED. But one thing I CAN do, is to THANK Him that I’m NOT a different Dave, NOT content, just as I am, just the way He’s made me, and THANK Him that I want something MORE than Jesus and His imputed worthiness. How humiliating. But. A Dave who is HONEST with his God and himself, who comes clean about his neediness, will be a happier, more-contented believer. And I’ve experienced this. It’s TRUE. But I keep forgetting. I keep forgetting that my flesh dunno nuttin about how to make me happy, even though it THINKS it does. My biggest need is not a different car, but a different Dave, so I don’t CARE about the things that consume my flesh.
So that’s why I call my car my “training wheels”, because Jesus is USING time spent in my car all alone, to grow my self-awareness, opening my eyes afresh to see more clearly my car idolatry, retraining me in cluelessness-I-know-what’s-best, so I’m increasingly SKEPTICAL of my flesh’s confidence-it-knows-how-to-make-me-happy. I love shouting out, “So WHAT, Dave’sFlesh?” when I’m all alone in my car driving, and suddenly aware of being wooed into thinking, “Look there’s a different car that might work, might make me happIER.” Jesus is using my training wheels to make me a different Dave, so I don’t need a different car.
— Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships, a pathetic practicer of what he preaches, but enormously encouraged that grace is for sinners/failures/losers — great examples of bad examples, encouraged that grace flows downhill to those at the bottom who are freshly aware of their NEED for grace, because of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit
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