As Christians, we are called to be set apart. But we are not called to be separate, if that makes any sense. We are not to just live our selfish lives, ignoring the cries for help from our surroundings.
We get comfortable. We are American. We get caught up in the materialistic mania that has captured the minds of our society.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with wanting nice things. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having nice things. But that shouldn't be our focus.
A couple of weeks ago, in conversation with a few friends, the topic of money came up. We were discussing what we would do if we suddenly got a lot of money. I couldn't think of anything...other than paying off my loans. But instantly, one person starting listing off all this stuff that he would get, and suggesting things for me to buy for myself.
I feel like that's a pretty common inclination. We want to spend our money.
I don't remember what all was in the list, but it was stuff like a new computer, an ipod, a new phone...
I mean, I would love to have those things. I would love to have an ipod. Music is a huge part of my life. But I have a radio. I have cds. I have Pandora. I don't need anything else. I have a laptop. It's really old and slow, but it's a laptop. It gets my work done.
Sometimes it amazes me how often people get new things like that. How many people really need a droid or an iphone? How do you justify paying for an extra data plan and internet, that you could get along just fine without, when you know that money could be used to benefit someone else's life?
Again, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having these things. I'm just asking, where is the balance?
How can you justify buying all your clothes from expensive stores when you could just as easily buy used clothes for more than half the price, when you know there are people in the world who don't have the money to buy a coat for the winter?
How can you justify having a closet full of shoes (most of which you hardly wear) when you know there are people who go barefoot every day of their life?
And sure, there are organizations, like TOMS, who donate a pair of shoes when you buy a pair of shoes...but their shoes cost $45-$80 ($100 if you get a pair of boots) and they give one child one pair of shoes. I have to wonder, how much does it cost them to do that? How expensive are they shoes they donate? Could they afford to do more?
And why, in order to be motivated to donate something, do we feel like we have to get something in return? Instead of buying a $50 pair of shoes for ourselves (that we, quite frankly, probably don't really need) and hoping that some little kid will at least have something on his feet, why don't we just buy several pairs of shoes for $50 and donate them?
We do things like benefit auctions, and not that they are at all a bad thing, why do we have to see something we want in order to be willing to have that money go toward getting women out of the sex trade? Why can't we just see that there is a need and give?
Why do we always have to get something to give something?
Of course, I'm not saying that everyone is like this. I know people that freely give time and money to those in need and I admire those people more than I can say.
But is that the Christian majority in America?
What would happen, do you think, if every person in America who claimed to be a Christian decided to get passionate about a cause? If we stopped being comfortable with our lives? Stopped ignoring the starving, dying, hurting people in the world? Stopped spending 90% of our money on ourselves?
What if we started to truly and actively love?
I don't want to be complacent in a middle-class, small church, midwest American life. I want to change the world.
I'm not saying there is anything wrong with wanting nice things. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having nice things. But that shouldn't be our focus.
A couple of weeks ago, in conversation with a few friends, the topic of money came up. We were discussing what we would do if we suddenly got a lot of money. I couldn't think of anything...other than paying off my loans. But instantly, one person starting listing off all this stuff that he would get, and suggesting things for me to buy for myself.
I feel like that's a pretty common inclination. We want to spend our money.
I don't remember what all was in the list, but it was stuff like a new computer, an ipod, a new phone...
I mean, I would love to have those things. I would love to have an ipod. Music is a huge part of my life. But I have a radio. I have cds. I have Pandora. I don't need anything else. I have a laptop. It's really old and slow, but it's a laptop. It gets my work done.
Sometimes it amazes me how often people get new things like that. How many people really need a droid or an iphone? How do you justify paying for an extra data plan and internet, that you could get along just fine without, when you know that money could be used to benefit someone else's life?
Again, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having these things. I'm just asking, where is the balance?
How can you justify buying all your clothes from expensive stores when you could just as easily buy used clothes for more than half the price, when you know there are people in the world who don't have the money to buy a coat for the winter?
How can you justify having a closet full of shoes (most of which you hardly wear) when you know there are people who go barefoot every day of their life?
And sure, there are organizations, like TOMS, who donate a pair of shoes when you buy a pair of shoes...but their shoes cost $45-$80 ($100 if you get a pair of boots) and they give one child one pair of shoes. I have to wonder, how much does it cost them to do that? How expensive are they shoes they donate? Could they afford to do more?
And why, in order to be motivated to donate something, do we feel like we have to get something in return? Instead of buying a $50 pair of shoes for ourselves (that we, quite frankly, probably don't really need) and hoping that some little kid will at least have something on his feet, why don't we just buy several pairs of shoes for $50 and donate them?
We do things like benefit auctions, and not that they are at all a bad thing, why do we have to see something we want in order to be willing to have that money go toward getting women out of the sex trade? Why can't we just see that there is a need and give?
Why do we always have to get something to give something?
Of course, I'm not saying that everyone is like this. I know people that freely give time and money to those in need and I admire those people more than I can say.
But is that the Christian majority in America?
What would happen, do you think, if every person in America who claimed to be a Christian decided to get passionate about a cause? If we stopped being comfortable with our lives? Stopped ignoring the starving, dying, hurting people in the world? Stopped spending 90% of our money on ourselves?
What if we started to truly and actively love?
I don't want to be complacent in a middle-class, small church, midwest American life. I want to change the world.
