We All Have Blind Spots

By Jon Acuff

There used to be a lavish couple who lived in our neighborhood, which was weird because the neighborhood itself wasn’t that swank. But this couple constantly flashed their cash for all of us to see, and the greatest example of this was in their driveway.

Side by side sat two luxury cars. Worth approximately $50,000 each, the two cars constituted roughly half the value of the home they were living in. The situation kind of reminded me of a friend in college who installed a Ferrari® horn on his Ford Bronco. Now clearly, everyone knows Magnum P.I. drove his Ferrari because of the horn, but it still seemed like an oddly expensive thing to add to a less-than-expensive vehicle.

I didn’t think much of that couple until one day they just disappeared. Like Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects, one moment they were there, and then the next, poof. No swanky couple.

Turns out they had a mountain of debt. Their larger-than-life spending eventually caught up to their less-than-lavish incomes. So they bolted. They split town. They vamoosed. (Which is a weird word if you think about it. Of all the animals to indicate speed, why a moose? That word should be “vacheetahed.”)

Their house was foreclosed on. Their lawn got all overgrown and ratty with the signs of abandonment. Their credit got wrecked. Why?

Because we all have blind spots.

We all have places in our lives that are difficult to see. We all have areas of spending or hobbies or passions that are too expensive for this stage of our life, but we just don’t see them. They stay in the shadows and we miss them.

For this couple, it was their driveway.

Own 30 luxury cars. Drive a Bentley. Get the whole Ferrari, not just the horn. But do it when you’re really ready, meaning when you can actually pay for them. With money. Real money.

So today, ask someone who knows you well and cares enough to be honest what your blind spots are. Maybe it’s a gun collection that’s bigger than your budget. Maybe it’s a fleet of shoes you don’t really wear, but couldn’t really live without. It could be any number of things that would be perfect for you, if you were financially ready for them. But if you’re not ready for them right now, what might be a fun purchase next year is actually a blind spot today.

Don’t get so blinded by your wants that you can’t see reality. You might not get foreclosed on. You might not meet a repo man for a while. But eventually, blind spots turn into dark alleys. And some pretty scary stuff can sneak up on us in a dark alley.

Read more from Jon in his book, Stuff Christians Like!