Give Yourself Away .2
Creative Chaos @ The Soul.
Today I hope we provide some concrete answers. The beauty of this blog conversation and my conversation with Rose is that there are no concrete answers. As you can tell, I don’t deal with this very well, but I am doing my best to open up to God’s moving without specific answers. Here is the rest of our conversation:
Me: I totally understand that many of the things I feel called to cost money (guitar, schooling, etc.) and I need to have a way to pay for them. I also can see that God has blessed us with jobs, a car, a place to live, and I don’t need to give them up. But we still haven’t figured out how we can serve “the least of these” and also serve money. In some way we are serving money by working jobs, paying bills…all those things are money oriented. So how can we live to do these money oriented things and also serve the God who desires everything from us?
Rose: I think the biggest thing is how you spend your time. If someone chooses to work longer and allows that to be their top priority then I think they have their priorities wrong. In our situation, we don’t have a ton of money, but we do have time that we can give. I think everyone has time. When I spend time with my small group girls, I feel so much more fulfillment than anytime I have a big day at work. I try and focus my mind on eternity and not material things that are of the here and now.
Me: I like to think of how I can sanctify myself from unbelievers. How can I show that I am different? I think a lot of my life and a lot of the “average” Christian life, does show a difference but I don’t think finances is one of those ways. Christians spend lavishly just as much as anybody else. I look at my own life and wonder how much different I look than the average person with how I spend my money. Just because somewhere around 10% of our money might go to a church and humanitarian efforts doesn’t mean I have set myself a part with my finances. At the same time, I don’t think we spend money on anything crazy. But, I want to challenge us to think of ways to be sanctified with our spending outside the 10% we already give away. 10% is pretty pathetic if you ask me, and it is probably sad that I let it be the benchmark.
Rose: This takes me back to when we were really struggling financially and had some unfortunate things happen and people just gave us money…and we still don’t know who those people are. My trust in the Lord and confidence in His provision has never been the same since then. I want my spirit to be listening to Him so when others are in a similar situation, God can use us to help them through. To me the real giving of yourself, is giving of your heart, not just money. As long as your heart is rooted in Jesus and in love then I don’t think money is the problem.
Shane Claiborne was asked this: How do we combat the pull toward materialism, and what does simplicity look like in the 21st Century?
His response has stuck with me since I read it:
“I think the most important question is not what I should give away, because the Scriptures say you can sell everything you have and give it to the poor, but if you don’t have love it’s nothing. So the deepest question around simplicity is about love, and redistribution of resources is only meaningful inasmuch as it’s rooted in love. When we really figure out how to live in the personalism and love of Christ with our neighbor, then that defines what’s enough so that we’re not just driven by an ideology, but by a love relationship to our neighbor.”
Romans 12:8-10
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Tyler Braun.
i think without love it can become very legalistic…..and we can become very judgmental. all of which I am trying to avoid, but see crop up in my heart again and again. Thanks for the brain and heart food.
Good discussion. Thanks for sharing it.
ok my thoughts… I think so often people/christans feel like they HAVE to do somthing in order to feel as though they are fulfilling their duty as a follower of Christ. Some people go as far as living IN poverty as those less fortunate than thm do…and some give everything they earn away in order to live simply or to follow what God has “called them” to do. I beleive however that Since God made us all unique and different with different gifts and abilities, we should find how HE calls us to live, and follow what his plan is for our lives. If you have money, dont feel guilty, God proveded for you…but dont be selfish with it. Rose was right (which she usually is
when she talked about using what you have to bless others. HAVE a nice house, but dont be selfish with it. Have nice things, but dont get wrapped up in what those nice things mean to you. Give of yourself and what extra money you have to the Lord and HE will bless you. It is ALL about where your heart is. This is just what I have learned… it is a tough one though…cause we like comfort andnice things…that is normal…but if you cant handle it…if you get TOO wrapped up in money, then leave it for those who CAN handle it and choose another path…Does this make any sense?? I dont think it does cause it is 2am, there is an Arabic wedding outside my window that WONT stop and Im TIRED lol but good conversation it is good to talk abotu these things and then to share so others can talk about them!!!
tyler… you mentioned you want to sanctify yourself from unbelievers…but why? to do that sounds almost as if you’re trying to be “better than.” granted, that may not be what you meant, but it was the first thing that stuck. jesus came to the people, ate with them, shared life with them….brought the rejected back into society and he was their friend. you talk about giving more than 10%…your time, your efforts, your love for people, your investment in them is certainly giving more. and here’s my take on the tithe. it is not a new testament idea at all! in fact jesus never mentions the old testament “requirement.” in fact what he does point out is the woman who gave 2 cents and that’s all she had! so the point is we’re to give everything in whatever we do and that is fulfilling a purpose, our purpose. also, bc Christ doesn’t mention the amt to be given, outside of ALL…do you think you’d be counted against if you decided to give that money one week to a homeless shelter or a charity or a missionary or ….someone else, some group in need? Would you feel like you weren’t paying your “churchly” obligation, if one week, or one paycheck, that 10% were given to joe-shmoe who needed it? How you give and who you give to must be decided in your heart, in your wife’s heart…and I believe that whatever you do- Jesus could not help but to smile and say, “well done.”
ash- to answer your question (a few days later, i’ve been without internet since i left for the trip) i think if you care about your local church that you should do whatever you can to fully support it as much as you can. i’m not saying 10% or anything like that. I am saying that giving 10% and making that the end all is sad. It is only said once in the Bible and when God says he desires everything I am sure that means money too. I think it depends on the person and I am definitely try to find more ways that Rose can give of our money in a Godly way.