FOMOco
The Mustang GT350 is gone. Ford ended production in 2020 after just over 6,000 examples were built. If you missed it, you can try finding a used one (or a GT500, which uses basically the same engine but with a nifty 2.7-liter Eaton supercharger hat). If it needs to be new, pieces of the GT350’s suspension live on in the Mustang Bullett.
None of these things are a new GT350, however. The package was so compelling: a Voodoo V8 with a flat-plane crankshaft. An 8,250 rpm redline, and beautiful, 95-decibel noises at wide-open throttle. Acceleration to 60 mph in four seconds flat. Outstanding suspension and gummy tires sustaining 1.08 gs on the skidpad. Technology-wise, it lands in the sweet spot; its stability control has a launch control setting (awesome) yet the whole system can be fully shut off (more awesome).
But now it’s gone. Thanks, Ford.
When their best products don’t stick around for long, it’s like FOMOCO (Ford Motor Company) has commoditized FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). FOMO is a new acronym, but the concept is as old as time. What swayed Adam and Eve to stray from God’s instruction in the Garden of Eden if not FOMO? 99.9% of the garden was their playground, but they sure were missing out on that last 0.1%. “Better try it to see what you’re missing,” the serpent said. And FOMO was born.
The book of Ecclesiastes was written by someone sobering up after a life tortured by FOMO. Desperate for meaning, pleasure, and contentment, the author (probably Solomon) attempted to satisfy these desires by chasing after their earthly sources: wisdom, leisure, and good works. Nothing satisfied him:
“I thought in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1) “I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly…” (2:3) “I undertook great projects…” (2:4) “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure… Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (2:10-11)
Wherever this fear or restlessness lurks, ingratitude and self-idolatry lurk too. FOMO says something better eludes you, that you deserve to keep searching until you’ve found perfect satisfaction in whatever you desire.
Sometimes we see through this. We determine that the thing we want (a new Mustang GT350, for example) wasn’t that great after all. We say, “Yeah, but it will depreciate/it’s impractical/a Camaro ZL1 is better…” and so on. Yet all this does is replace the foolishness of your desirous thinking with other foolishness. If depreciation, practicality, and competition are your chief concerns, you’re still attempting to satisfy your FOMO with a physical thing – just a better physical thing. Really, this is treating FOMO with FOMO.
God hasn’t determined for you to be anything other than what you are. He wants you to be happy with what you have. If contentment seems possible after you’ve received something you don’t already have, you’ve missed the point of contentment. Because God says you have everything you need: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) With your mind rooted in a Godly understanding of possessions and how God designed us to use them, perhaps a used Mustang GT350 is indeed in your future. You can entertain the idea without obsessing over it, or fearing that you’re missing out by not having it right now. We discover these things through prayer, searching the Bible, and having conversations with other Christ-followers about identity, purpose, possessions, and our fears. If you feel that God isn’t leading you to buy a GT350, consider all the ways God is leading you to contentment instead.
The fortunate few driving Mustang GT350s today may have their own FOMO. Its EPA combined rating is 16 mpg (in a 16-gallon tank, that’s a maximum of 256 miles). The fear just might be missing out on the days when gas was cheap.
