Day 2

Things were going well on the 'no spending' front until we drove to the Quauy in New West and had to find a place to park.  I was determined not to fall into the same habits: find a close spot and pay parking.

But we succeeded!

Second moment of duress: Starbucks every 3 feet.  Will.  Not.  Buy.  But oh how I wanted to when I had to go to my night shift at work.  How ridiculous that I am so desperate for comfort, so often.  Some people don't have water, don't have a home, don't have clothes on their back and I'm sad because I can't have a coffee?  

I was reflecting some more from reading this book Seven, so much that is challenging me. For months I have been weighed down by my need to change.  There is a tension in my heart, a frustration, an anger, a realizing of the suffering around me and the incredible comfort and security I live in.   It's not fair.  It's not right.

If it's true that our excess could somehow be channeled into lives that have none, I want that to be the direction we head.  And I have to say, already I feel a sense of relief somehow.  I can just hit 'pause' on spending and just say no?  I can just say "no I don't need to replace that appliance,"  or "why don't we live without?"  

It's had me thinking too:
we have a mattress sitting around, extra pillows and sheets, who could they go to that really needs them?
we have so many children's clothes that we don't need 'just in case.'  What child, even around me, wears the same clothes to school every day in the fall?  Might I meet him too?
What about my three pairs of running shoes, might someone need a pair?
And all the blankets I own, or the ones I could make, as winter draws closer, who might need them?

And then I think about the garage sale we just had, $80 bucks ain't much, but who would that be much to?

Lord show me need, I want my faith to become action, my more to become less, and my burning desire to have have have, turn to contentment and joy from radical generosity.