Barn Burning

 
There we sat, for many many months with a lot of big ideas in our laps and a whole lot of questions in our minds.  Sure Jesus can raise the dead, save the most hardened hearts, and give human beings the mental capacity and creativity to come up with something as cool as Pinterest, but can He make some progress in our souls when it comes to teaching us to truly be thankful for the things we already have instead of constantly being on the prowl for the things we don't?  Can we live with less?  What does it look like to simplify our lives?  What about when we really do need to purchase something? As best as we can, we want to be informed and most certainly do not want to touch "oppressing the poor" or "denying the laborer their wages" with a ten foot pole.  Although we fail, our desire is to value human life.  But what do I do when my kids need new underwear or school supplies?

All good questions, and my mind was eagerly awaiting some answers.  I was ready to jump in and get moving.  Are you feeling that too?  Here's the sad truth.  I was insanely excited about finding new ways to spend our money and identifying companies to support who value their employees.  What I wasn't excited about was this gentle nudge I was feeling to do some deep down honest research of my own soul.  What would it matter if I changed my spending habits and began supporting socially responsible companies if my heart was still as greedy and full of lust and love for this world as it was when God opened our eyes to the plight of the poor?

I'd way rather start googling where to buy underwear made in socially responsible ways than I would like to dwell on passages of scripture where Jesus says hard things like, "Beware of all kinds of greed" and "If you have two cloaks and someone needs one, give them yours" and "Do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or wear because it is God who meets those needs."  You know that verse we hear people say before a sporting event, or when their kid is in a talent show at school?  "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength?"  That may be one of the most misused passages in scripture.  I personally preferred using that verse as the thing we say before a big race or when a final exam is on the horizon.  Instead, Paul was talking about contentment.  Rats, right?  He says, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me."


As much as I wanted (and still want) to race into shifting where I shop, the hard work that needs to happen every day in my soul is answering bigger questions like "Why do I need one more ding dang thing? " and "Do we really need all this stuff we already have sitting around our house?"

"Our problem isn't that [people in the US are] using too much stuff, but we're using more than our share.  We have five percent of the world's population, but we're using thirty percent of the world's resources and creating thirty percent of the world's waste.  If everybody consumed at US rates, we would need three to five planets."  -- from The Story of Stuff

Since we serve a God who loved the world, I think it's important to try, as best as we can, to think globally about our greed and our consumption.  I admit that it's incredibly difficult to stand in the aisle at Target with new shabby chic pillow shams in my hands and consider that all of my actions not only affect my relationship with the Lord, but also affect people living all over the world.

My lack of contentment and gratitude for the gifts I have already been given cause me to be a major player in the way that I overuse resources, overspend on myself, and continue to accumulate wealth (tunics) while millions of people go without their most basic needs of food, clothing, and human rights.

Bigger than "where to shop" was this sweet work that God needed to do in our hearts.  Greed.  Discontentment.  Lust.  Soul cancers.

Remember the farmer who harvested his fields?  The harvest was so magnificent, the farmer had nowhere to put it all.  His solution?  "I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy!* Eat, drink, and be merry!”  Jesus called that farmer a fool.  Why?  Because Jesus was warning against "all kinds of greed." Then Jesus goes on to say some pretty famous words about not worrying about our life.  He reminds us that it is God who cares for us.  He is our provision.

Every radical thing that God is calling us to do as believers seems to always point us straight back to faith.  To live like Jesus is describing is difficult, because it's crazy.  It's unnatural.  Doing the ridiculous things Jesus says to do always causes panic.  Living within the economy of heaven always causes us to stand still for a second and admit a really hard truth:  "If I do what I'm about to do, and Jesus and His Kingdom are not real, I'm an idiot."

Living for heaven...living out Jesus' words...putting all our eggs in the heaven basket always requires faith.

Learning to care for the poor, every single time, without a doubt, will bring us back to that fork in the road.  "If I do what I'm about to do, and heaven isn't real...if Jesus was a nut job...then I'm to be pitied above all men."

What caring for the poor and setting up our lives to be poured out for the least of these will always be about is a bold invitation to grow in our faith and savor the gospel. It's an invitation to set our affections on heaven.  What simplifying our lives and giving generously to the poor never should be about is guilt.

"We tend to try and develop a social conscience in Christians the same way

the world does - through guilt.  We tell them that they have so much 

and don't they see that they need to share with those who have so little?"

-- Tim Keller in Generous Justice

Guilt will never work.  How many times have you heard a pastor try that?  I have.  Did it change me?  No.  While I would never walk into that pastor's house with a caramel frappuccino, you better believe I was still downing my fair share. I don't think Jesus would ever harp on someone because they bought a Starbucks drink or accuse them of buying expensive coffee, making them feel guilty about their extra shot of espresso when a woman in Africa can't buy malaria meds for her dying baby.  Instead, I think Jesus would do what Jesus was always doing...trying to point our hearts towards heaven.  Reminding us that investing our lives and our affections in a world that is rotting away is a terrible investment.  Giving us an opportunity to live out the gospel towards our fellow man, giving to others freely because God has freely given to us.  Calling us to live like citizens of heaven.  Faith. The Gospel.  Heaven.  His faithfulness.  His provision.  His Kingdom.  He wants our eyes and our hearts set on those things.

"If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor,

the thankless and the undeserving.  Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be."  

-- from a Scottish pastor in 1848 in Tim Keller's book, Generous Justice

Jesus' life...the gospel lived out...not guilt...are the only sustainable motivations for allowing the Lord to renovate and restore our souls when it comes to the areas of materialism, consumerism, and how those things affect our neighbors.

Before moving on with this series can we just sit here in this place for a few days?  I'd like to say that our desires, lust, greed, and discontentment has been removed as a family, (wouldn't that be nice?) but the truth is...this is a constant, vicious battle...a consistent invitation to either live for the Kingdom of this world, or live for the Kingdom of heaven.  We struggled with these ideas and sinful desires before we moved to Haiti.  You would think the struggle would be easier living in a place like Haiti where we see intense need with our own eyes every single day.  You would think so...but you'd be wrong.  The issue in our souls was never our zip code.  The issue was and is greed.  We find ourselves constantly having to come back to the gospel as we consider all of these obstacles to caring for the poor.  Continuously asking God to show us how our own story is not different from the story the poor are living out.  I'm guessing Jesus knew all the lunatic things He said about wealth, possessions, and the poor would cause us to run back to the gospel.  His words would cause us to see ourselves through sober eyes.  I'm guessing it will always be healthy for us to do so. 

"To the degree that the gospel shapes your self-image, you will identify with those in need...When you come upon those who are economically poor, you cannot say to them, "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!" because you certainly did not do that spiritually.  Jesus intervened for you.  And you can not say, "I won't help you because you got yourself into this mess,"  since God came to earth, moved into your spiritually poor neighborhood, as it were, and helped you even though your spiritual problems were your own fault.  In other words, when Chrstians who understand the gospel see a poor person, they realize they are looking into a mirror.  Their hearts must go out to him or her without an ounce of superiority or indifference."

-- Tim Keller in Generous Justice

*If you say "Take it Eee-zee" like Nacho Libre, I think it adds a lot of depth to the parable.  Just sayin'.

Other posts in this series:

Caring for the Poor While Living in the Good ol' U-S of A?

Who Are the Poor?

Looking for the Poor 

Hi, My Name is Heather and I'm a Modern Day Slave Owner

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