I am occasionally encouraged by my folks to start saving for the future, to have a plan for emergencies, etc. While this is great. I simply have not done anything about it. My current job hasn’t allowed itself to do so. My savings has been pretty minimal. Yet, I remain pretty selfish. I get what I want. A lot of times its something that is fleeting. Something I really could do without. I really don’t need to be more comfortable, but this is how I was taught. Not necessarily from my parents, in fact, I think there’s been little influence from them. But its from the culture around me. I’ve fallen for the consumer trap of marketing that drives me to think I need and want something. I really don’t need it. But I want it just because its so “cool, hip and popular”. Somehow I think its important to have a lot of money saved, so when I don’t have a job, or I’m old..I’ll be safe. I’ll be comfortable. I’ll have security.

Then Francis Chan (yea I know I sound like a broken record with him, but he’s got some great stuff to say) wrote something on his blog a few days that really hit me hard. First, watch this video:

This is what he said:

why is my life more valuable than this baby’s? Someone asked me recently why I don’t save money for emergencies, or retirement. My answer was how can I justify saving for myself “just in case” something happens to me when something IS happening to so many already. 29,000 kids will die today of preventable causes. If I’m to love my neighbor AS myself, why spend so much time worrying about me?

I re watched the video and found myself fighting back the tears. Gosh, I don’t deserve most of the stuff I have. Heck, I don’t need half of the stuff I have. I don’t need the latest music CD, book, or gadget. I don’t need it! Plain and simple.

Since finishing up Crazy Love, I’ve been really challenging myself on ways I can help people. Honestly I’m struggling myself. But that is no excuse. Over this past week I have had two opportunities to give and help people. I don’t say this to be boastful about it, but it reminds me, how can I be more proactive in helping my neighbor rather than helping my self be the creature of comfort I’ve been trained to be, and want to be? I can’t take what I save. Holding dear to this comfort weakens our faith in God and his ability to provide. Does he not know the hairs on your head? the grains of sand on the shore? And yet we want it our way, we want our security blanket and our comfort. I’m not so sure He’s called us to live this way…

Luke 12:22-26

“And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about yourlife, as towhat you will eat; nor for your body, as towhat you will put on.”

“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”

“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!”

“And which of you by worrying can add a singlehour to his life’s span?”

“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?”

Tags: authenticity, Confessions, transparent

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