FAITHdare #21: What's Left?

I live so often with a perspective of immediacy...rather than one fixed on eternity. I think my relationship with money all comes down to this one simply complex factor: Do I desire Christ above all else? Do I LONG for Him, for the day when I will see Him face to face? Because if I do, all else--money, investments, retirement accounts--will fade in comparison. It's not rocket science. We have been given the pearl of great price...what are we going to do with it?

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it" (Mt. 13:45-46).

This is our last week looking at our relationship to money. I love what Cindy shared with us last week...and I think it reflects this parable. We are clinging to our land and our houses and our furniture, when we could easily trade all that JUNK in for a treasure that will NEVER spoil, perish, or fade. Will you choose to live with that perspective, or will you continue to cling to earthly things? Choose THIS DAY whom you will serve...for you cannot serve two masters.

I would strongly urge you to take an hour this week (if you are married, do so with your spouse!) to really examine what you are doing with the earthly resources God has placed in your trust. Are you hoarding them for a day you have not even been promised? Are you wasting them on todays that will soon be yesterdays? Or are you investing them in LIVES and RELATIONSHIPS that whisper of the kingdom of God here among us? Don't wait any longer...for tomorrow will vanish before you know it. What will you have left when you stand before the King?

FAITHdare #20: Do you trust Him?.....GUEST POST!!!

I'm beginning to wonder if all it comes down to one question: Do we trust Him? In the garden, Eve bought into the lie that God was withholding something from her. Isn't that what we, deep down, think? Does God really have our best in mind if He asks us to give up everything to follow Him? I pray that you all would begin to wrestle with that question this week, as my new friend, but already dear sister in Christ, Cindy, shares her journey with us. Be moved by the Spirit, and share your reflections!

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“Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly. I’m a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”~ John Newton

How and when God chooses to open our eyes is a great mystery to me. But I know by His grace He does it, because it has happened to me.

It was my last day in Uganda, Africa, in 2006, and I was ready to be back home. My husband and I were sitting in a tiny church office where hand-written posters about Jesus hung on the walls. We were talking with our good friend, a Ugandan pastor named John, when a small frame stepped in to the doorway. There stood a young boy, obviously malnourished, head down, muttering something we couldn’t understand. He appeared to be about 8 years old.

Three times we asked him to repeat himself, but he spoke so softly, we couldn’t make out the words. Finally we looked at John and asked what this little boy was saying.

“Will you pay my school fees?”

A thousand things flashed through my head at that moment. The first being, this little guy is starving. Why is he asking to go to school? A Mirinda grape soda had just been ordered for me and arrived on a tray, icy cold with a straw in it. I handed it to him.

I asked him to come stand by me so I could hear him. He took two steps to cross the room and was by my side. “What is your name?” “Vincent.” “Vincent, what class are you in?” “S4.” Disbelief. It is not possible that this small boy is a freshman in high school. So I repeat and clarify my question. “How old are you?” “13.”

At that moment, I remember thinking that if I did not take care of this little boy, I would be the most evil person on the planet. That was my exact thought.

Fast forward 4 weeks. I’m back at home hiking a small mountain near our home. At the top, I look down and see the large custom homes sprawling across beautifully landscaped yards with swimming pools. As I look left to see the homes, I notice my strong desire to live there. How could I have an appetite for this after what I had seen? I am remembering Vincent, and I am, possibly for the first time, acutely aware that I am in the midst of a struggle. I did not want to want those homes. But I did. And my desire for them did not vanish, no matter how hard I thought about Vincent.

Mercifully, God took us back to Uganda just 4 weeks later. We visited Vincent and his mother in their tiny shack of a home. Vincent’s mother was widowed, and she ran a food store the size of a small closet in front of her home. We learned both Vincent and his mother had AIDS.

This time in Uganda, I noticed something. I noticed that when I was in the midst of poverty, my want-er stopped wanting. Maybe not entirely, but it lessened. Interesting.

Back home to the U.S. again after 11 days. It’s now August of 2006. I had just come face to face with abject poverty twice within two months. Sometime over the course of the next year, I sat in a chair in my living room, looking at our gorgeous wood floors, crying, because there lay $20,000. $20,000 that I walked on, but could have fed Vincent and a whole host of other children.

But nothing changed. Like good Pharisees, we still gave our 10 or 15% to God, because that’s what we had been taught to do. But nothing changed in our lifestyle. We didn’t give any more because of what we had encountered. We had been involved with this ministry in Africa for more than 10 years. We had now seen firsthand the desperate need. We had met Vincent and visited his home. But in my heart, there was a battle that was not yet won.

In 2007, we began reading a book by Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity. I had grown up in the church and had gone to a Christian school. But this book was a compilation and study of what God’s word has to say about money, and I had not heard anything like it. My husband and I sat there reading one night, and he shook his head sadly and said, “I’ve been a terrible steward. If I were God, I’d fire me.”

“For the word of God is living and active, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit… discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

In 2007, God began teaching and molding us. I discovered that it is His Word and His Word alone that brings conviction that leads to change. I knew all about poverty in my head, I advocated against it and wrote about it, even running a small non-profit organization, and I had seen it with my eyes, but it was His Word that pierced me, that revealed the true condition of my heart, and that began to change me.

That same year, thanks to the book!, we made a decision to sell our home. The instant we made that decision, I thought: “Well, at least if we have to go live in an ugly home, I will still have my beautiful brand new furniture.” By this time, the Holy Spirit was moving rapidly in my life, and I was almost instantly convicted. I couldn’t believe it. Now, not only would I be selling our home that we had poured a year into re-modeling and decorating, but I would be selling the furniture that I dearly loved and had spent countless hours shopping for and purchasing.

At this point, it really became a grit-your-teeth-and-do-it thing. I knew in my head that Jesus said to love my neighbor as myself (which I was clearly not doing), and that if I loved him I would obey His commands.

And for me, the process was a bit like ripping off a bandaid. I was scared to do it. I was afraid of the pain. But when I took the bandaid off, it stung, but only for a moment, and the sting was followed by lasting relief. The process of selling our home took more than a year. And it also took more than a year to sell our “stuff”—furniture, home décor, jewelry, you name it, I sold it. With each item that left the house, I felt a bit of a sting, but each time, the sting lessened.

And in the middle of this process, I discovered something HUGE. SATAN IS A BIG FAT LIAR. He had lied to me my entire life, and I had believed him. I believed that having nice things would make me happy and that parting with my things and my pretty house would make me sad. I could not believe the new freedom that was beginning to emerge in my soul. To this day, I cannot believe it.

I learned that God is totally trustworthy. That He tells the truth, and when He says that friendship with the world is enmity with God, it is true. And when He said that we cannot serve both God and Money, it is true. And when He says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and that through this craving some have wandered away and pierced themselves with many pangs…it is true. I had pierced myself with many pangs, needlessly.

But if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (Exclamation points, mine J)

He came and he set me free from myself. He set me free from my love affair with the world. Really and truly free. I didn’t know this kind of freedom was possible. I realize now that I was in bondage. It really does feel like I’m born again, for the very first time.

One of the last things I did before leaving that house was to dump my collection of home magazines and magazine clippings. It was an act of worship. And it was completely freeing. I recalled what I had learned in Uganda. That when I was staring poverty in the face, my want-er became less active. I realized that these home magazines presented an opportunity for idolatry. They in no way focused me on His kingdom, and the love of beautiful home décor distracted me from my purpose and reason for existence.

“But, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

And I know now that all I need to do to obtain that freedom is to obey. Obedience is followed by blessing. And sometimes we just need to grit our teeth and do it, but we will never, ever be sorry that we have followed His ways.

A few months ago, a friend of ours had a garage sale to raise money for orphans, and I looked around our home to see what else could be sold. I grabbed all of the little items that hadn’t sold before—picture frames, fake plants…a bunch of less-than-$10 items. There on my kitchen counter sat my beautiful paper-towel holder. I felt the familiar sting. (Seriously, how can one love a paper-towel holder?!) But I know the drill now. I picked it up, put it with the pile of things, and it sold. And you know what? I don’t miss it!! I am happy that $8 went to feed an orphan rather than sit and look pretty on my counter.

I am thankful beyond words that He loves us enough to pursue us, to change us, to open our blind eyes. Though I’m sure the scales have yet to fall off in many areas, I can still say with John Newton, “I was once blind, but now I see.”

Vincent is alive, and though still suffering from AIDS, he is on ARV’s that help abate the toll on his body. He is sponsored by one of our friends and attends school. His brother and sister are sponsored as well.

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FAITHdare #19: Eternal Investments

To be honest, I'm having a hard time coming up with "money dares." Why? You'd think with my verbosity I could come up with SOMETHING, but I think Jesus pretty much gave the greatest "money dare" anyone could ever issue, and so that leaves me with, well, reflection over HIS dare:

"'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven'" (Mark 10:21).

Now I know someone is going to say this, so I might as well say it...no, I am not taking this verse "in context." But this verse reminds me of another passage, Ecclesiastes 5:10-15:

¹⁰ Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.

¹¹ As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?

¹² The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep.

¹³ I have seen a grievous evil under the sun:
wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,

¹⁴ or wealth lost through some misfortune,
so that when he has a son
there is nothing left for him.

¹⁵ Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.

Tonight I was talking to someone whose family is spending a large sum of bonus money earned through work to bring two orphans into their loving home. This someone's family has already adopted (more than once), and many would say, "You've done your 'duty!' Use that money to take a vacation!" But you know what I realized as I was talking to her? She and her family are really getting the good end of the deal! They are investing in things that last...not in vacations and television sets and grand homes, but in lives! They GET IT! They are taking the ultimate "money dare," from the lips of the one who gave up His LIFE so that we really can invest in what matters--ETERNITY! This family can be certain that, should their lives end tomorrow, they have invested in kingdom wealth--a wealth that will not fade, spoil, or perish.

If you take a good look at your life, can you honestly say at the end of the day that you are investing your short-term, earthly wealth in eternal things?

Because I don't think I can say it any better than Solomon:

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand."

If you were to die tomorrow, would you have any investments to cash in when you stand before Jesus? Or did you leave all those behind?

FAITHdare #18: Revisited

This week, as I was reflecting on what I wrote in the last post, I began to wonder WHY we are so hesitant to give. Here are a few reasons I came up with:

We can't fathom living without our comforts.

We don't think we will really be making a difference.

We don't know who or what to support.

We are lazy and just don't take the time to think about it.

We think we are entitled to what we have.

Can you add to this list?

FAITHdare #18: Lifeboats and Missing Out

How would our spiritual lives change if we actually had to trust God to provide the things we need?

You might say, "Well, we do have to trust God to provide!"

And I would say REALLY? Do we really? With all of our savings plans and investments and 401k plans? Do we really have to trust Him to provide? I am certainly not sitting here nervously biting my nails, wondering where my next meal will come from.

Check out Matthew 6: 25-34. Can we even apply this scripture passage to our lives today? I just finished reading a biography on the life of Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India more than 100 years ago. She did not save up money for a rainy day, or store it away so she would have a lifeboat if storms hit. Rather, she used it to do God's work, to care for His lost children...trusting that He would provide her next meal. And here we can barely "afford" to sponsor a missionary, or give a small percentage of our income to the poor, while we sock away piles of money in our children's college funds and our retirement and "rainy day" accounts.

Are we missing out on some of the sweet fellowship with Christ that comes with a day-by-day dependence on His providence for our most basic needs? I think about our brothers and sisters around the world, many who do not know when they will eat again, when they will find clean water to drink, or where they will sleep that night. They have no choice but to lean on Jesus, to converse with Him throughout the day in abiding fellowship that is their only source of sustenance. Are we missing out? Maybe while we are sitting in our lifeboats, we are missing out on the most refreshing of swims. I can't help but wonder if our panic with the faltering economy is born out of a history of comfort. Most of the time, we have very little concern for how our basic needs will be cared for. I am what many here would call a "poor college student," and yet I have so much. And because I don't have to wonder how I will eat tomorrow, I am shaken when I am faced with even the slightest lack of anything.

I do not say all this to condemn myself or anyone else reading this, only to share what has been on my heart. While we place so much importance on saving and investing and, in a sense, hoarding, I wonder if we are missing out. We pity those who have not, while maybe we are in the most desperate state of all and do not even know it.

So I guess this is not so much a "dare" as it is an invitation to ponder and pray, then to share what is growing in your heart.