Rich people are at more than one disadvantage when it comes to the relationship with God that Christianity is centered around. And by rich people, I mean most if not all of us who can read this. If you’re like me you have an Internet service that you pay for to get online; a personal or family computer that you bought, and maybe you’re even paying for a mobile phone service with the Internet. Hey, we even have an education that gave us the skills to read. We have a few extra minutes to go online when we can look back at others down through the ages whose longer work days led into eating and sleeping to get ready for the next work day, meaning we’re rich in leisure time.
Back to the topic… many of us have what we need here in our life, such as food, shelter, clothes…a car for most of us… probably some friends, and usually a little extra spending money. So… what was it we needed God for?
Not only is there the disadvantage of thinking we’re doing just fine without God in our life; there’s the second part of actually living for those things. I find it too ironic that we even die for those things; I read a news article this week of a world famous skier (which happens to be my favorite sport) that was filming for one of his videos where he did base jumping on skis, but things didn’t go as planned when he went off the cliff, and Shane McConkey ended up dying. Completely tragic. Left behind a wife and 3-year old daughter. But I’m not singling this one guy out; there’s example after example of tragedies in extreme sports. You could even use me as an example if I get run over by a semi on my motorcycle tomorrow, because I could’ve used a safer form of transportation but wanted the enjoyment of riding.
So I think the problem is that these thrills, new things, even casual and serious relationships fill up the hole inside of us. It’s a temporary fix to the longing within when these right here and right now are all we have. They’re not true peace. You won’t get that from them. You’ll get some happy memories, sure. Excitement for the time being; of course! But look again in a few years. Or even the end of your life. It’ll be an interesting death-bed conversation, wondering what happens next, if all the thrills and stuff doesn’t matter anymore.
I guess that just takes me to my disagreement with the whole idea of just adding a little Jesus to your life. I’ve even seen the bumper sticker “Give Jesus a try!” and it saddened me. Maybe my mind took me straight to the account of the Old Testament times of the Israelites becoming like their neighboring countries that worshipped various things and put God in there as one of those things. As if giving Jesus a try were like joining his facebook fan group, or supporting him like our favorite sports team. That’s pretty far from what Jesus actually talked about in his teachings, when he spoke of taking up a cross the same way someone would write their own death sentence, because following him was that serious.
One of the best examples I’ve seen of someone purposefully choosing to not let himself get caught up in being rich is Francis Chan. This guy leads a church over in Simi Valley that I used to go to, but here’s a quick example of what he does. Last year he published a book called “Crazy Love” (let me know if you want it but can’t afford it; I bought a bunch of them to hand out because it’s one of the best books I’ve read, otherwise you can order here), and the book actually shot up the charts, bringing a lot of money in for him in royalties. When he was informed that he’d be getting a couple hundred thousand dollars from this book, he was excited but immediately considered what would happen if he put his security in this money instead of in God. He decided the right choice was to give all the money away; simple as that. Set up a fund for charities called the Isaiah 58 fund, and he could direct where the money should go. His friends assured him that it would be fine to keep a little for himself to set aside for emergencies, and his reply was just to point at these other needs across the world of hurting and dying people: what do you mean set aside for emergencies? So he and his wife started praying for a specific need to come up that the first royalty check should go to. Within a couple days of creating the “Isaiah 58 Fund,” a lawyer and pastor were sitting in Chan’s office explaining how they needed help over in Thailand to fight the sex trafficking going on. Get this: they told Chan that they had just started the “Isaiah 58 Project” and were wondering if there was anything he could do to help them. There was his answer, so that’s who the first check is going to.
Well now that I’ve typed this out, it’s time for me to go think about it all some more. Serious implications for those of us who call ourselves Christians. I hope my words are not taken as “Don’t be rich,” but instead a warning at how much harder true Christianity is for us as Americans, or even Southern Californians if you’re here near my area. You could argue with me that it’s the love of money that gets condemned rather than money itself, which I agree with, but that wasn’t the point. It’s a lot easier to love money and the things it buys when you actually have it (and plenty of it, as I feel like I do).
(inspired by: matthew 19:23-26)
I heard Francis speak on the Isaiah 58 project recently! I was really encouraged to hear (1) that Crazy Love is doing so well and (2) that a man is standing on our Rock and Redeemer Jesus Christ!
Let’s pray that a fire is lit under the American Church.
Also, a presentation by Francis’ church, Cornerstone has detailed how the church can end world hunger if we only give 10% of our total incomes! (It can be viewed on Youtube)
We read from the Apostle John, given by God, that we cannot love God (invisible) if we do not love our neighbors (visible).