Becoming a Christian is like buying a car.
A man went to a car yard. There he saw old cars and new cars; large cars and small cars; elegant, fashionable cars and
simple, practical cars. Simple cars could be had for reasonable prices, while more exotic ones carried price tags more than 50 times as large.
Some were popular brands about which he had heard many favourable comments, while others were obviously unpopular brands or models that people were eager to get rid of. Should he judge them by their popularity? He decided to think about that a little more; after all,
the service log should show whether the car was reliable, and that should matter more than whether his neighbours might approve of it – although his next-door neighbour was rather assertive.
With so many cars, he couldn’t possibly test-drive them all, so he had to set himself some boundaries within which to work. Firstly, he needed a car that would fit his family, but not be too big – which eliminated the three-wheeled
single seater, the former rally car and many too-small or too-large vehicles. They might be very nice cars, but they didn’t meet his needs.
He also wanted a car that he could drive immediately and would do everything that a car should do. Unroadworthy, unregistered or written-off cars were not for him.
Some cars he simply didn’t like the look of
because of their aesthetics, colour, smell or “feel”, but these preferences he tried to ignore as being less important than other features.
Above all, he wanted a car that would take him safely to his destination with a minimum of trouble.
He spent several hours looking around the car yard, every now and then asking the staff for either general advice or
comments about specific cars. Figuring that they were experts, he expected their comments to be valuable, but most of the time, he found that they were focussed on selling him the most expensive car rather than the car that was best for him. When he crossed paths with other customers who were looking to buy, he discussed vehicles with them too, and was intrigued by the different reasons for changing cars. Some just wanted a change, while others were replacing a car that had let
them down. Still others had just got their driver’s licence and were looking for their first car.
At times, their comments were helpful, but others seemed ill-informed or illogical.
With such a range to choose from, he couldn’t look at each car in detail, but one appealed to him particularly. It was a clean, tidy car of a popular make and model –
the same model that his neighbour owned and frequently recommended. It would fit his family reasonably and should work reliably for many years to come. As a bonus, purchasing it would keep his neighbour off his back!
He decided to take a last short walk around the lot, hoping for some peace and quiet in which to make up his mind. Then, as he walked past a secluded corner, a car he hadn’t noticed previously
caught his eye. It looked a little different from the others: plain but attractive. He went across to look at the car. Its badge indicated that it was made by “Reliable”. He had never heard of the brand, but he was willing to learn. He opened the driver’s door, noticing as he did so that one of the staff was already making his way towards him.
As he looked inside, he got a shock. There were
no pedals, no steering wheel and no controls. For a moment, he wondered if this was an imported car with controls on the other side, but no, there were no controls on that side either.
“This is a self-driving car,” the used car salesman said as he walked up behind him. “It doesn’t have any controls, you just speak to it.”
“Does it work?”
“I think so, but I doubt it will suit you.”
“Why not?”
“We’ve actually sold this car a few times. People are all enthusiastic when they buy it, keen to have the car doing the driving for them, but nobody has kept it past the three-day cooling-off period.”
“Why?”
“I can’t really say, sir. It just doesn’t seem to suit people.”
“Does it ever have accidents?”
“Not that I know of. To the best of my knowledge, it works flawlessly all the time, but people keep bringing it back anyway.”
“How much is it?”
“Well, that’s an awkward question.” He named a very low price, then added, “That’s to buy the right to use the self-driving car. You can’t actually buy the car, and if you want to sell your right to use it, you have to bring it back here to do so. There’s also a special clause in the bill of sale that limits what you can do with
the car.”
“Ah! So it’s not really a self-driving car at all, is that it? – it only works in some special situations.”
“Oh no, sir! It’s nothing like that. The condition is that if you modify the car to add any manual controls, you have to pay the same purchase price again for each control you add.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I’m afraid that’s what the other people who bought the car decided before their cooling-off period expired.”
“So who checks whether you add manual controls?”
“Nobody.”
“Well, who
collects the money?”
“We sell this car on consignment, sir. We take our percentage and the rest goes to the owner. After the car is sold, the money for adding manual controls goes directly to the owner.”
“But nobody checks?”
“That’s right. Nobody checks on you. You
report the changes and you pay the money.”
“Well, that sounds completely ridiculous, but I can’t imagine adding any manual controls anyway. Surely a self-driving car is the perfect way to travel!”
“If you think so, sir. Do you want to buy the right to use the self-driving car, then?”
“Do I ever! I can’t think of a better deal than paying such a low price to get that amazing benefit. Anyway, that three-day cooling-off period means I can bring it back if I change my mind, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. All you’ll lose is 10% of that very low buying price. But I should still remind you that nobody has kept the car past the cooling-off period.”
“I will. I’m sure this is just the car for me.”
To be continued...
