Six Dollars!!

Matteus gave his six hard earned dollars to Jesus.  Kid's place (and our church) is collecting coins for the poor.  It had taken Matteus six weeks to earn the six dollars.  There really was not much of a discussion about it.  Matteus happily announced his decision, and then happily, with a big grin, put his money in his pocket to take to church this morning.

If truth be told, I was completely surprised.  Matteus has repeatedly talked with me about the legos he was wanting to buy with the allowance he was banking up.

His little act of love really has left me thinking.

Do I give everything that I have to my Jesus?

Do I give everything I can to help the poor?

Do I give all that I have with a huge grin on my face because of my heart overflowing with stokeness (made up the word) because I get to be a part of what God is doing?

Matteus made it seem so easy.  He made it look easy to give everything that I have for the sake of meeting the needs of the poor.  He also made it look like pure JOY!!

Is it really that easy?

I've been thinking about this all day ...

I actually think it is, although I would have to say that our culture complicates things.  If we let ourselves, we can spend our whole days being bombarded with messages about how WE need more stuff.  If we listen to the messages, we will spend our whole lives buying stuff with all of our money, and we won't have anything left to give.  Our culture tells us that if we want to be happy, then we must have the nicest clothes, cars, and house.  In order to do that within the norms defined by our culture, the result is that we need to work really hard so that we can join the race of upgrading our clothes, cars, and homes.  This is a race that I think, doesn't have and end.

If we study scripture and specifically the life of Jesus we find very different norms role modeled.

Could it be any clearer in Matthew 6,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Jesus does NOT say, "store up for yourselves treasures on earth."  Then why do WE spend a life time doing just that? 

I wish I was more like my son.

I wish I could say that I am giving sacrificially to meet the needs of the poor.

My reality is that I am not.

The other reality is:

The Hole in Our Gospel

"Almost one in seven worldwide, 854 million people, do not have enough food to sustain them. This makes hunger/malnutrition the number one risk to health globally, greater than AIDS, malaria, andtuberculosis combined. About 25,000 people die each day of hunger or related causes—9 millionpeople per year.

What??

My brain and heart don't know what to do with that reality.

So what am I doing?

And how do I sort out James 2 in with this reality:

"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?"

And what about this truth, also from the book The Hole In Our Gospel:

"The total income of American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. (That’s more than $5,000 billion.) It would take just a little over 1 percent of the income of American Christians to lift the poorest 1 billion people out of extreme poverty.  Said another way, American Christians, who make up about 5 percent of the Church worldwide, control about half of global Christian wealth; a lack of money is not our problem." 

When scripture is so clear, why isn't the church leading the way in ending world hunger?

Why am I not (I have such a LONG way to go)?

"To whom much is given, much is required."

I have been given SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luke 12

Dear Jesus, help me to be more like my son.  Help me to want less stuff, and more of what you want.

Help me to want less stuff, for the sake of others ... that they might simply live.  Help me to not get so comfortable that I forget the things you have SHOWN me about your heart.

If we ALL let Jesus' words be the BIG FONT in our lives, we would end world hunger.
(Yes, I REALLY do believe that!)