It drives me nuts to realize that some Middle Eastern sheiks and Texas oil tycoons have turned us all into a bunch of riverboat gamblers. But that’s the exasperating feeling I have every time my gas gauge nears “E” these days.
Should I buy gas today when the price is an outrageous $2.65/gallon … or wait until tomorrow when it might be a slightly-less-outrageous $2.50/gallon? Of course, it could also be an even-more-outrageous $2.95/gallon by midnight tonight. Do I “hold ‘em” or “fold ‘em”?
As I approach a gas station, I feel like game show host Howie Mandel is in my face with his bald head saying, “Deal … or no deal?”
Just this week, I played “gas roulette” and lost. As I got close to one of the typically less expensive stations in town, the cheapskate voice in my head said, “Get gas now. Your tank is only half empty, but the price will probably go up tomorrow.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it – you’ve got half a tank, for crying out loud!” argued the gambler in me. “The price has been creeping down this week – just hold out and it will be cheaper tomorrow.”
This schizophrenic self-talk continued as I drew closer to the station. When it came time to declare, “Deal or no deal,” in an adrenaline-charged burst of optimistic risk-taking, I passed by the station.
“No deal!” my inner gambler shouted.
The next morning, I passed by that same station. The nocturnal demons of price gouging had been out again and in the span of a mere 10 hours, the price had climbed a full 12 cents/gallon.
“I knew it! I knew it! I told you so!” the penny-pincher in me screamed.
“Uh … ooops,” said the gambler. “I guess you better hold out now for awhile longer and see if the price comes back down. It usually does, you know.”
So I held out … until today, when my car was gasping for fuel and I was forced to shell out a good 15 cents/gallon more than I would have paid just a few days earlier. It doesn’t matter that we’re only talking a total difference of just a few dollars – it’s the doggone principle of the thing.
Trying to decide when to buy gas is like looking at your cards in a game of blackjack and wondering if you’re as close to the magic “21” as you can get. I think if these oil industry folks are going to turn gasoline buying into a casino game, they should at least dress their gas station attendants in tuxedos and offer us complimentary hors d’oeuvres.
This whole oil/gas mess is so frustrating that there has to be a spiritual lesson in it for us, perhaps several. Let me propose one: While gas prices, the economy, Middle East politics and even our personal bank accounts may bounce all over the place, God doesn’t. That’s why He calls Himself the Rock.
And that’s why when I look around for something to anchor myself to, nothing but Jesus Christ is stable enough, strong enough or sure enough. Money disappears, people leave, jobs evaporate, health fails … but Jesus is the same forever.
“There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God.” –1 Samuel 2:2
He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. — Psalm 62:6