Money and Stuff

A little bit earlier today I started feeling guilty because I haven't really been very personally "engaged" with God for awhile. I go to church and sing to Him and talk about Him there. I talk about Him with friends sometimes, but I haven't just opened up the Bible and read or just talked to God one-on-one for awhile. I decided that maybe I should read Blue Like Jazz to see if it made me feel better. I ran into a chapter that made me think about something I never really have thought about before. After reading it I felt all inspired so I picked up my Bible and read some more of Ecclesiastes and found something that seemed to go hand in hand with what I'd just read from Donald Miller. I had read the chapter called "Money."

As teenagers I don't think we consider giving money to our church very often. I think we typically just get the contribution plate-bowl-thing and pass it on to the person next to us. I guess we don't tend to think about money very much at all because we haven't quite tasted what it is to have much of it. We just expect our parents to dish out the money for our food and our clothes and any other basic needs, usually we hope that they'll give us an allowance too, and I guess we assume that they're putting some money in the collection plate as it goes by on Sunday morning. We don't really worry about expenses very much.

The reason why this chapter about money started making me think is because I'm about to enter into a miniature world of expenses. Turning sixteen this summer means I'm going to be getting a job soon, which means I'm going to actually have money -- money that I earned. It also means I'm going to be driving soon, which could mean that I won't have anymore money (what with maintenance and gas virtually being a black hole in a wallet). But the truth is is that I'm going to have my own money. I've never struggled with the sin that money can turn into because I've never tasted what it's like to have it. I'm thinking about all this because I know that this sin will be creeping up on me very soon.

Donald Miller was talking about how he didn't used to spend money very well. He always wanted to go buy little things that didn't matter, like buying a new extension chord even though he knew that there was an old one in a box in the basement. He began just wanting stuff. I fear that this might start happening to me when my own money enters my life.

After reading about that I opened up my Bible and started reading about halfway down in chapter five. It said, "Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what is the advantage of wealth -- except perhaps to watch it run through your fingers!" I feel like Solomon is saying something really wise here, he usually is. I feel like I really need to listen to those words and apply them to my life, because I know that in the next few months I will begin experiencing real money.

I love the way Donald Miller ends his chapter about money. He was talking about this one night whenever him and his friend were camping, away from the world and away from money. He said, "I remember a particular midnight walking into a meadow surrounded by thick aspens and above me all that glorious heaven glowing, and I felt like I was a part of it, what with the trees clapping hands and me feeling like I was floating there beneath the endlessness. I looked up so long I felt like I was in space. Light. No money and no anxiety." He goes on to say, "It is possible to feel that way again. It is possible not to let possessions own me, to rest happily in the security that God, not money, can give."

Solomon ends chapter five of Ecclesiastes in a very similar way. He is talking about how it is good to enjoy life and to relax. He says, "And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life -- that is indeed a gift from God."

So I'm left here thinking about how possessions and money are all indeed a gift from God. I'm thinking about how in some months (or maybe weeks) I'm going to be earning my own money. How I know it will be so easy for me to forget that this money came to me from God and that it's not my own. I think I've decided that since I'll be working for my own money I should probably start giving some of this to my church.

So the lesson for today ends here. I think that we all need to think about what we have and stop taking so much pride in it and getting our worth from it. Our true worth comes from God and I think we need to give some of this stuff that we call ours back to God not because He needs it, but because we need it. We need the discipline and the sacrificing of our stuff to help us understand that our stuff isn't what life is all about. "...that is indeed a gift from God." Our life is about Him.

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Quotations from: Ecclesiastes 5:10-11, Blue Like Jazz p. 199, and Ecclesiastes 5:19

Our Promises

I realize I haven't done anything with this website in over two months and I'm sorry for that. I feel like it really applies to the lesson I've planned on doing though. So, here goes.

Since Kadesh (and Dry Creek for some) are a few weeks back from us how have you been since then? Did you make any promises to God while you were there? Do you remember what they were? How have you done with keeping them? If you're starting to feel a little guilty you aren't the only one. I came back from Kadesh all charged up for God but a few simple days later I fell right back into sin, into slavery.

In Blue Like Jazz Donald Miller says something that I think applies to this: "Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused." I think the same thing happens to us at these Christian camps. We go there, the Holy Spirit overwhelms us, we make all these promises to God saying, "I do." The Christian camp is like some sort of an amazing honeymoon with God. We spend our week singing, praying, and reading the bible and then we come back and everything falls apart. That spiritual romance sticks around for awhile, but then we become slack, things start falling apart, and we forget the promises that we make.

In Ecclesiastes chapter five Solomon talks about how we should act while we are in 'the house of God.' This could mean when we go to church, or when we spend time in our Christian camps and make all these changes. I think it's talking about anytime we come before God. He says, "As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut! Don't be a fool who doesn't realize that mindless offerings to God are evil. And don't make rash promises to God, for he is in heaven, and you are only here on earth. So let your words be few." We go to church or these Christian camps and we have some sort of amazing spiritual experience where we decide to make a promise to God and change our lives. This is good, but so often we say things like, "I'll never sin again!" and how rash a promise! Solomon goes on to say, "When you make a promise to God, don't delay in following through, for God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all the promises you make to him. It is better to say nothing than to promise something you don't follow through on."

So by now you might be feeling really guilty, but you aren't the only one. I went to Kadesh and told God that I would give up my sin and now I realize that this was too rash of a promise to make. I plunged right back into it when I came back home. It says that it is better to say nothing rather than to make a promise and not keep it. I've already said it, but I need to work on keeping it. It's not going to be something magical where I give my life to God and never struggle again. Our group at Kadesh spent a long time talking about where it says to "shoulder your cross daily" and follow him; it's something we have to work on every day. Another promise I've made God is my ministry through this website. It's something that I've let myself go months without writing time and time again. I hope that this time I can keep this website up. I hope that this time I can really turn from my sin and my slavery instead of falling back into it. I hope I can keep my promises to God. We just need to shoulder our cross daily and follow him.

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Quotations taken from: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller p.60, Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, 4-5, Luke 9:23

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