Sell it all, Give to the Poor, Follow Me

Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

My heart is grieved. I don't feel a great calling (as of today) to become a missionary or anything, but even if I wanted to, I don't think I could. It feels inappropriate to give the coat off of one’s back when one could actually still be paying it off. Jesus told this rich guy to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow Him. How does that work in America when people could literally sell everything they have and still be in debt (most likely inclused student loans)? I would gladly leave all my junk behind - but I'd still have stuff to pay off (a lot less than most people, I hear.)

Are Americans are in a trap? American Christians bought into the religion of financing; America's middle class and poor can have it all for no payments and interest for a year or low monthly payment for the next 20 years or more. Our worship is financing to the god of capitalism.

How can one follow Christ if, even after selling everything, there is still more to owe? What would a Jubilee look like today? (Leviticus 25)

I fear for my students right now. Some are freshmen and are planning on fully financing their college educations with student loans and are pursuing low wage jobs. One wants to be a teacher - if this student finances 4 years and makes payments on all loans after graduating, more than 1/2 of their salary will go to student loans! They want to go to a Christian school - which is basically going to put their grandchildren into debt so they can teach.

What does God want for this situation - and mine?

Content

I believe God is teaching me to be content, believe it or not. It isn't so much about our material goods - it is more about our situation in life.

Heidi and I had very high goals of getting rid of student loans and other debt before we started a family. Ideally, we'd like to live off of one income. The past choices we've made have prevented us from doing that as of yet. However, we both feel that God is getting our hearts in this. See, when we made all these goals, we set out the plans and didn't really consult God much. Now I don't believe God is in heaven with a giant magnifying glass burning us with the sun... but I do believe that we were not trusting Him in this whole process of getting out of debt and not spending - and it was showing.

Every month we thought we'd have some great sum of money to save or pay things off... but as life would have it, it didn't happen. Some big bill came up or we'd have to fix something. S0 even though we aren't buying anything, it is almost like we're still shopping. (not really, but you get the idea.)

It kind of hit us one day: "Oh yeah, we didn't ask God about this."

I started to feel this relief! I've been working my butt off for about two years to get out of debt in a timely fashion but my plans always got messed up. It was like God was smacking me in the head each month when I'd look a Quicken saying, "You think you're gonna do this without Me? I can help...just include me."

So we aren't expecting that our debt is going to disappear (although that would be cool) but, as we come off our consumption binge, we are learning to surrender it to God so that we can't say "look what we did."

God is good! I am bless.

Sacrifice

I could be missing the point on this but it has convicted me nonetheless

20 "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal."

I was doing my Bible study this week and that verse was a part of it. I couldn't stop thinking about what it means to sacrifice. I also couldn't think of something that I have actually had to sacrifice for God. I know that the Lord wants me to do what He said rather than ritual sacrifices, but I do desire to give sacrificailly. 22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. It got me thinking about the building campaign College Park went through about a year ago. Heidi and I agreed on an amount that we would contribute and sacrifice for the building. I guess it has been just now that I realized we might have been wrong.

Our number would have stretched us a bit because we took money out of our 'entertainment' and 'eating out' lines of our budget. Of course there was still some money in those categories, but it was just less.

Is not going to McDonald's a true sacrifice? If I didn't go there, I would still have food at home. If there wasn't food at home, there was still money in the grocery budget to buy some. So really, I wasn't doing without, or actually sacrificing anything...was I?

Since we've been on our 'not buying' kick, I think I've actually started to detox from consumption a little and my priorities or even just the way I see things is different. So is there the an American sacrifice interpretation that goes into my faith? Is not going on a vacation considered a sacrifice?

I don't know if gas money could be considered a sacrifice or not, either, but it is probably the closest I've actually come. When we did our budget, our gas was set for an average amount that included my commute to work, a few errands, and our weekly trip to church. Heidi and I were also not apart of our current flock group (which we love) and didn't really have anywhere else to go. Since then, we are making about 3 trips a week to the northwest side of Indy and Heidi has one trip downtown to IUPUI.... so our gas has almost doubled - not to mention the rise in prices. But was is the 'true cost' here? The truer costs would have been entertainment money or eating out...but since we are not doing that, it is only really costing us an extension in paying off debt. The opprotunity cost is really nothing. We were spiritually in a drout for a long time - too long. So we are basically sacrificing savings and retirement for current spiritual development. I think it is worth it.

I'm fortunate, being an America, because I've never had to go hungry - even if things did get bad for us, there are services and programs that are there to help...not to mention GOD.

My favorite speaker just mentioned, in his latest film, "Don't pray for God to feed the hungry while you have food." Ouch! Don't pray for God to meet the needs of others when you are unwilling to sacrifice what HE has given you in the first place.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this, but I have to go!