Listening to “Girl America” by Mat Kearney made me think of all the injustice that happens everywhere all the time. I caught myself wondering if the majority of people just block it out and pretend that life is happy everywhere or if we acknowledge it, but just decide that it’s “too bad.” Neither of these responses is the right one. What makes us unwilling to reach out? What does it take to love a stranger enough to lend a helping hand; in the name of Jesus or even of morals in general. Reasons I can come up with are as follows:
-It messes up the comfortable life that I currently possess or am trying to obtain.
-I don’t want someone to reject my love.
-It’s an awkward situation and I wouldn’t know how to act or react.
-I wouldn’t even know where to begin…
All of these reasons are valid and most likely true. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, “Whatever you did for the least of these, you did to me.” There will always be injustice. There will always be hurting people – everywhere. God commands his people to reach out. It is awkward and uncomfortable. It is also seen as going above and beyond. Lastly, it’s perfectly acceptable to the vast majority of society to just sigh “oh, that’s too bad” and move on with life.
HOWEVER, this is no excuse. Too often, (I think) Christians quench the opportunities God gives us to be used by him to extend his love to broken people. That doesn’t mean that an opportunity was made crystal clear and we reject it (although sometimes this is the case). I think that often, we need to be looking for opportunities and follow God’s leading, even when it seems scary to do so.
This is somewhat of a scatter-brained post. Sorry. Your thoughts?
Monday, June 14, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
"Stuff"
Many buy into the lie that material things bring happiness. It’s commonly thought that owning homes, cars, motorcycles, gaming systems, designer clothes, a nice cell phone, etc… means a better life. To sum it up, the more money you have to purchase these things, the happier you’ll be. It’s funny because in America, many people’s lives show that they believe this. However, if you ask someone if money/material things will make them happier, they would say no.
I think another common misconception is that you have to be “wealthy” to fall into this trap. I don’t think you have to have much to fall into it. I know it plagues me and I’m newly married and not quite graduated from college. I don’t really have a lot of disposable income, but I can still feel a lot of pressure to acquire things I probably don’t need. The pressure comes from the lie that life will be better with that new item.
So based on these thoughts, I’ve started wondering what would happen if we decided to give up some of our “stuff.” My speculation is that we would have more time to love our families and friends. We would have more time and resources to help those in need. Our relationships would be deeper. Perhaps a summarizing idea would be that there would be less “stuff” to distract us from being used by God to further his kingdom. I think there’s a reason that Jesus asked the rich man to sell his riches AND THEN follow him. Jesus says it’s harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven then for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. I think the point Jesus makes is that “stuff” gets in the way. Our stuff makes it harder to follow Jesus whole-heartedly. We’re easily distracted by our stuff.
The guys in my wedding party pitched in and bought me an xbox (which I’m quite excited about). My wife (yes, I have a wife now!) works tonight and most of the day tomorrow. It’s quite tempting to sit in my apartment and play my xbox tonight and for the majority of the day tomorrow. It’s fairly distracting for me. Not that it’s wrong for me to play it, but I think it would be more beneficial for me to visit my family, hang with some friends, do something nice for someone, etc… instead of playing ALL night.
I wonder how many times we let our stuff quench opportunities to be used by God. I wonder how much deeper our lives might be without it. Lastly (and I know it’s drastic), I wonder how our lives would look if we literally gave our wealth to the poor and had only basic necessities. Just some thoughts. Oh, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think!
I think another common misconception is that you have to be “wealthy” to fall into this trap. I don’t think you have to have much to fall into it. I know it plagues me and I’m newly married and not quite graduated from college. I don’t really have a lot of disposable income, but I can still feel a lot of pressure to acquire things I probably don’t need. The pressure comes from the lie that life will be better with that new item.
So based on these thoughts, I’ve started wondering what would happen if we decided to give up some of our “stuff.” My speculation is that we would have more time to love our families and friends. We would have more time and resources to help those in need. Our relationships would be deeper. Perhaps a summarizing idea would be that there would be less “stuff” to distract us from being used by God to further his kingdom. I think there’s a reason that Jesus asked the rich man to sell his riches AND THEN follow him. Jesus says it’s harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven then for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. I think the point Jesus makes is that “stuff” gets in the way. Our stuff makes it harder to follow Jesus whole-heartedly. We’re easily distracted by our stuff.
The guys in my wedding party pitched in and bought me an xbox (which I’m quite excited about). My wife (yes, I have a wife now!) works tonight and most of the day tomorrow. It’s quite tempting to sit in my apartment and play my xbox tonight and for the majority of the day tomorrow. It’s fairly distracting for me. Not that it’s wrong for me to play it, but I think it would be more beneficial for me to visit my family, hang with some friends, do something nice for someone, etc… instead of playing ALL night.
I wonder how many times we let our stuff quench opportunities to be used by God. I wonder how much deeper our lives might be without it. Lastly (and I know it’s drastic), I wonder how our lives would look if we literally gave our wealth to the poor and had only basic necessities. Just some thoughts. Oh, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think!
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