“An Automobile Sabbath”

e-pistle from Bishop Mike

July 1, 2008

“An Automobile Sabbath”

It finally happened. Today I paid over $4 per gallon of gas when I filled the tank on my Buick Rendezvous. Up to now I had avoided that $4 barrier by carefully watching for gas prices on the web and while driving around Indiana. Today I finally had to cross that barrier, and I did not enjoy it.

In fact, I had said to Marsha recently, “I refuse to pay more than $4 per gallon for gas!” She reminded me that I said the same thing when I first paid $1 per gallon, and then $2, and then $3. She’s right of course, but I was not glad to hear that reminder.

Part of the “pain at the pump” (I wrote an E-pistle by that title when gas hit $3 per gallon) is that we cannot control those prices. We can drive a little less, we can drive cars that get better mileage (my vehicle gets a consistent 23 miles per gallon over all, which is not bad for an SUV, but these gas prices make me start looking for other options), and we can drive more slowly (recently I drove 65 MPH on the Interstate on my way to preach at a church, and I found that my mileage increased by 2 MPH, but I also found that traffic just about ran over me). In spite of those small changes we can make, we really feel no control over the prices we are paying. Now those higher gas prices are starting to impact lots of other prices, since our US economy is based upon transportation of goods for long distances. Once again, we feel a lack of control when prices for food and other essentials also rise, and we have limited options.

What can we do about our “pain at the pump”? I have a small suggestion … an “Automobile Sabbath.” Pick one day a week and don’t drive at all on the day. The Old Testament model of Sabbath (still kept by Orthodox Jews) was sundown Friday to sundown on Saturday. Pick that day or any other day that works for you, and make it your Automobile Sabbath and your time to stay home and relax with family and friends. Making that choice is tough if your job causes you to drive every day, but most of us can improve our lifestyle and our personal economy if we take seriously the Biblical concept of Sabbath. We all need a day off, a day of relaxing from the usual schedule, and perhaps a day off from driving. That would force us to plan our travel in order to get all of our errands done on other days, but that might be good for us in terms of planning and time, too.

An “Automobile Sabbath” won’t solve all of our problems with gas prices, but it might be a step – a positive step – toward taking charge of our lives in a healthy way.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner
Indiana Area of The United Methodist Church

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