A Car Club Invitation
Car club badges (or decals) sometimes imply exclusivity. You can receive a fancy badge if you belong to, say, a national MG car club or a regional MG car club, or if your membership has surpassed a certain amount of years. But you gotta earn it.
It wasn’t always this way. In the earliest days of motoring, just owning a car put you in a small population of slightly loony futurists. Driving was immersive, messy, dangerous, and labor-intensive, and the earliest car folks formed clubs to discuss quaint topics such as survival. Their badges weren’t VIP passes meant to exclude people who didn’t belong, but open invitations to anyone who felt the pull of the automobile and wanted to join.
Think of that “open invitation” sense of belonging when you read this passage from the Bible:
“Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:5-6)
These two sentences kick off a 16-chapter invitation to join the family of God, which would have been a radical concept to early believers in Rome. For thousands of years, being in God’s family meant having a certain lineage. Jesus changed all of that, and the apostles were explicitly charged with handing out open invitations, to absolutely anyone, to “a righteousness from God that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17).
But these Gentile believers might have been a little confused by seeing God’s people, the Jews, living among them in Rome, and violently opposing the message of salvation through Jesus. Maybe they saw other new Gentile believers continue in hurtful behavior, not the “obedience that comes from faith.” Some may have said, “If that’s what God’s family is like, I don’t want to be adopted.”
The book of Romans addresses this confusion. Within this 16-chapter invitation, early believers (and you) can read plenty of honesty as well as a beautifully humble admission of inadequacy: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (Romans 7:18). The strength of the global group of Christ-followers comes from Christ himself. It’s not about perfection by its members, or careful selection of only the most qualified applicants, or the amount of time someone has spent in the club. Like the earliest car clubs, members are there to support each other and discuss survival.
These days, only the best examples of certain cars get badges, but try thinking of ownership within God’s people in a different way:
“I just got this MG TF from a crazy old uncle. I don’t know much about it except that it’s rusty, but I joined this MG club because they said they can help.”
“My Mustang GT350 goes through rear tires pretty quickly, especially when I do burnouts as I leave car shows. I know I shouldn’t, and I’m working on it, and my Mustang car club is helping me work on that.”
“I was so excited to put this Honda Motorsport badge on my 2021 HR-V. It’s kind of a dull car, but I believe the spirit of Honda’s early motorcycle racing days lives within it and I want to remember and celebrate that.”
You have personally received an invitation to join this collection of misfits who are nevertheless cherished by the Creator. Joining is a great way to learn about perfection – not from a perfect car or a group of people who seem perfect, but the perfection of Jesus. Think about joining. There are some really bumpy roads out there.
About 9,600 MG TFs were built in a short, two-year run from 1953-1955. They are the third continuation of the legendary TC, and continued the slow evolution toward modernity with slightly better aerodynamics and an optional 1466-cc engine with 63 horsepower. Their gauges are octagonal, reflecting the MG logo as well as MG club badges. If you own one, those gauges can be daily reminders of the inclusive, free, open invitation on your front bumper.
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