Having It All
In the late 1990s, Ford’s marketing department played a big role in kicking off the modern era of high-horsepower ponycars. Efficiency and technology were major points in Ford’s “Ford 2000” global strategy, and company spokespeople were promising all of that plus big power through their most powerful car: the 1999 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra. Its relatively small 4.6-liter engine made a whopping 105 more horsepower than the OHV 5.0-liter V8 in previous Mustangs, and helped the car get 26 MPG on the highway.
Just a year earlier at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Ford showed the Super Stallion show car, boasting a supercharged 5.4-liter DOHC V8 with flexible-fuel capability. On E85 fuel, it generated 590 horsepower and 537 lb-ft of torque. Aftermarket tuners got in on the fun too, including Steeda’s supercharged Mustang GT and the venerated Saleen S351R. Forced induction was beginning to sound economical. Yes, you could really have it all.
Automotive advertisers making big promises is hardly new. Neither is changing conventional wisdom, like when your car club hypes up new forced induction kits that are emissions-legal and relatively easy on gas. These messages are easy on the ears, usually because they confirm what the mind wants to be true.
During the time of Jeremiah’s prophecy, some false prophets were spreading a message that sounded too good to be true. And it was. Like Ford marketers in the late 90s, these prophets told the people they could have it all: license to live as selfishly and sinfully as they want, and no negative consequences to their integrity, heart, relationships with other people, or relationship with God. So God sent Jeremiah to set the record straight:
“This is what the Lord Almighty says: Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord…. And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’ But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?” (Jeremiah 23:16-18)
God spoke to Jeremiah to deliver a message repeated throughout the Bible: you can’t have it all. The human heart’s innate inclination toward selfishness, greediness, autonomy, laziness, prejudice, arrogance, and pleasure seeking is at odds with God’s desire to clean all of that out and fill it with his love and truth instead. You can’t have both. In Proverbs, the way of wisdom is described as “narrow,” which means you can’t wander around and take the scenic route while arriving at the Godly wisdom God wants for you. Jesus describes himself as the “narrow door,” which means you can’t ignore the uncomfortable things in God’s word and still get the good stuff it describes.
God knows how hard this is. He gave you a curious heart, a brain that rewards pleasure, and a soul that longs for experience and exploration. With the right guidance, those are tools that lead to a rewarding life. In a sinful world, though, it’s just too easy to be tempted. It’s impossible to make the right choice 100% of the time. In fact, according to radio evangelist Chip Ingraham, the Bible says it is impossible to live as a Christian 100% of time. The very truth God wants you to follow also assures you that God’s grace and redemptive power belong to anyone who believes in the saving power of God. And God doesn’t just promise you some of his forgiveness, or enough love to get by. He says you can have it all.
Fuel costs are always a funny consideration when weighing out the costs of performance modifications. Sure, the 1999 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra got about the same or slightly better mileage than the outgoing Mustang GT, but gas was around $1 a gallon. Meanwhile, the Cobra’s $28,000 base price was about $8,000 more than a new Mustang GT. The Steeda Mustang GT rang in at $31,000, and the Saleen S351R was far beyond that. There’s always a price, even if the message sounds too good to be true.
