Someone bought something else for me.
I'll admit it. We were checking off something from our summer list, going to Granville Island, and my Mom bought us the tickets to take the ferry across False Creek. Okay, fine. She bought me a drink too.
This isn't exactly the plan. (Coerce other people into buying me things rather than buy them for myself). However, I will admit that she volunteered.
Oh. And I bought a drug today. But I'm going to die without it people, or at least not sleep lest I can't breathe from both nostrils simultaneously.
That's all an aside. I just happened to start reading about Jen Hatmaker's decision to spend less for her 6th month of her project in Seven and, let's just say I'll let her words hammer at your heart rather than my own:
"Just because I can have it doesn't mean I should." I heard this recently and it stuck. The counterattack to this perspective involves a list of objections easily accessible to the standard American consumer:
It's no big deal
I can afford this
I've worked hard for my money, so I can spend it how I want
I want this back off
I deserve this
Other people spend way more
So we spend, spend; amass, amass; indulge, indulge item by item, growing increasingly deaf to Jesus who described a simple life marked by generosity and underconsumption....
What if wealth and indulgence are creating a polished people rotting from the inside out, without even knowing it? Is there a reason Jesus called the rich blind, deaf, unseeing and un-hearing, and foolish? Jesus never utters a positive word about the wealthy, only tons of parables with us as the punch line and this observation: It is terribly hard for us to receive His kingdom, harder than shoving a camel through the eye of a needle...If this is true, then more than fearing poverty or simplicity, we should fear prosperity.
Shall we stop imagining these sad, sorry rich people belong to a different demographic? A brave believer admits, "He's talking about me." Look at our houses, cars, closets, oru luxuries; if we are nto rich, then no one is. If we aren't swept up in entitlement, indulgence, and extravagance, then Jesus is a foold, and lte's get back to living....
What if we are actually called to a radical life? What if Jesus knew our Christian culture would design a lovely life template complete with all the privileges adn exemptions we want, but even with that widespread approval, He still expected radical simplicity, radical generosity, radical obedience from those with ears to hear, eyes to see?"
What she writes is so counter-cultural, so challenging, but so in-line with how Jesus talked about wealth.
The point is, I don't want to just 'slow down my spending' for a month. I want to change the way I look at myself, and my wealth. Instead of always looking around and looking up at who I believe are the 'haves' and thinking "we need this to be happy or wouldn't it be nice if we had that like so-and-so." I need to start recognizing that I, am in fact, a have. When I glance at the billions of people in so many other parts of the world, how can I deny that I am a have? If I am not rich with my clean water, safe neighborhood, roof over my head, a loving husband who values me, and money to buy medicine for my comfort and not just for survival, then I am blind, deaf and dumb to see it.
It makes me want to weep.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the fact that I am a 'have' is so that I give it all away. All this grasping, pushing, shoving, diving to get a grasp on some ever-moving line of 'enough,' is killing my joy, limiting my impact, and stopping God's spirit from working in my life, the life of my family, and the life of others.
So, now what?
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