LiveDifferent Challenge (4): Chew on God's Word
So you might be thinking, “Gee, Kari, quit all your harping on spending money and stuff. God does actually give us things to enjoy.” I know. I’m just sharing the things that God’s teaching me and challenging me with. I certainly don’t want to play the Holy Spirit in your life, but I do pray that these LiveDifferent challenges do just that–challenge us. I was reminded in a sermon recently that our struggle is not to make our lives relevant to the culture around us. Everything around us is pressuring us and shaping us and conforming us to be like the world. Our challenge is to be shaped, conformed, and transformed into Christlikeness. How is this done? By the renewing of our minds through God’s revealed Word.
The phrase that’s been burning in my soul recently has been “wartime lifestyle.” We young kids have no idea what a wartime lifestyle is like, but my dad can sure tell you, and if any of you have grandparents from WWII, they can really tell you. What I like about this phrase is that it reminds me that there is a war going on every single day. We live in the midst of a spiritual battle. While I brush my teeth and eat my cereal in the morning, there is a battle going on for the hearts and souls of millions of people. Thousands of people will die and go to hell while I write this blog. I’m sorry, I know that’s disturbing, but I’m asking God to disturb me. I’m asking God to break my heart a little. I’m asking Him to make my life less conformed to this world and more conformed to His Word. So I looked up wartime lifestyle online and I found this video by John Piper (it’s only 3 minutes so CLICK HERE and watch it!). I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Well, in the midst of wartime lifestyle I have this profoundly great pleasure of a gift magazine subscription from my sister-in-law to Real Simple. I love this magazine. For one, it’s excellently written, so it’s a joy to read from a literary standpoint. Secondly, it always has creative ways to (surprise!) live Simply. So there are tips for wise spending, tips for easy and healthy meals, tips for house organization. This month had tips for cost-effective kitchen remodeling. It fascinates me to read the opinions and thoughts and conclusions of real men and women who are searching for something. It helps me understand a little more how people think. So tonight as I was reading, I came across a horrifying statistic, and I knew immediately what my LiveDifferent challenge for this week would be: In 2006, Americans alone spent $3 BILLION on CHEWING GUM. Yes. $3 billion on gum. I’m not talking about coffee or junk food or things that at least have some nutritional value. GUM. A non-nutritive substance. Now I am no mathametician (I can’t even spell that), but in some quick research online we can estimate that approximately 15 MILLION people DIE each year from starvation in our world. These are people who may or may not be able to hear the gospel before they die from starvation. The amount of money that Americans spend chewing trident would therefore be enough money to feed these people ($200 a year per person) completely. I am sorry, but is that appalling to anyone else? I know that it’s not that easy. You can’t just not buy your Wrigley’s and expect people to be fed, but if these numbers don’t frighten us, what will? I just think it’s ironic that Americans alone waste enough money on a non-nutritive substance to feed the rest of the starving world. One secular reporter wrote, “It is a shame on humanity that in a world that is richer than ever before, six million children die of malnutrition and related illnesses before they reach the age of five.”
I’m really not trying to be the obnoxious girl here. But right now I am surfing online looking at pictures of babies, starving, and tears are running down my cheeks and I’m weeping because my little boy is sleeping contentedly in his crib with his full tummy and his warm blankets. And I have a pack of gum in my purse. And another mommy, in another part of the world, is watching her baby die of starvation. I know I can’t change it, but it should bother me. I won’t post pictures here, because my point is not to guilt you or me or anyone into making life changes, but would you consider just looking, go online and just look. Let your heart be broken. Let yourself grieve for the gluttony of our nation. Let yourself be bothered. I am uncomfortable and glad at the same time for finally starting to see, allow myself to see, the reality of suffering and the reality of my relative ease.
So, where do we go from here? We LiveDifferent. The challenge this week, simple as it might seem, is to quit chewing on gum and start chewing on God’s Word. I challenge us to give up buying and chewing gum for one year (or for forever if you’re up for it!), and make a greater donation to a mission organization such as GFA, where you can buy sheep and goats and chickens directly for families in need. Research organizations that provide for the hungry and consider where your money would be best spent. And take some time to sit in God’s Word. Jeff and I started a new tradition, because he wants to work on his preaching (he mostly teaches, which is different, and wants to learn how to make the Word applicable to people), so once a week he’s preaching us (Dutch and me) a sermon as a devotional. Tonight we went through Romans 3 and I was just reminded of how rich and wonderful God’s Word is. In the mornings I’m in 1 Samuel and in awe of how powerful the stories of David are, and how they wash my soul and set my mind on things above. Chew on God’s Word. Take a stick of it each morning and chew on it all day long. No gum can refresh you like God’s Word.
Thank you for your commitment to LiveDifferent with me. These are just ideas. I would love to hear any ideas that you all might have. I’m obviously blind to my own weaknesses, so I’d love to hear ways that you see to LiveDifferent. And I do pray that God would break our hearts, make us uncomfortable, make us weep even, weep. Our lives are two seconds long. A vapor. We live for something so much greater. So let’s LiveDifferent, yes?
Don't you just love your church?!
“We found a church we love!”
“I love my church.”
“Well, we don’t love love our church, but it’s ok.”
I’ve often said those kind of comments. In Corvallis, I always told people, “I love my church so much.” At other times in other towns, I would often say, “Well, I don’t love love my church, but it’s ok, I mean at least they teach the Word and stuff.” And I’ve often asked people, “How do you like your church?” They or I would respond with a quick run down of characteristics that are either positive or negative. “Well, the worship is [fill in the blank: boring, loud, quiet, old fashioned, hard to follow, not my style] and but I like the [fill in the blank: preaching, sunday school, nursery, youth group, small groups]. So all in all it’s just fine.” How many times have I done that?!
But what Jeff keeps reminding me is that the church is the people. Yesterday I overheard some college girls doing the old children’s hand-song: “Here is the church, here is the steeple, open it up and see all the people,” twising their hands upside down to reveal their wiggling fingers. Such a small thing, but it does teach our children that the church is the building (and that it has a steeple!), and the people wiggle around inside. And for many, that is the church–the building. Or, more accurately for our discussion, the church is the programs. We like worship but don’t like the teaching. We like the teaching but we don’t like the sunday school. We like that the church has a nursery. We don’t like that the church has a nursery. Goodness gracious I am so convicted of how opinionated I am with regard to “how to do church.” The church we’re at now is lightyears different from the church where we served before. And naturally, when we first came all those differences felt awkward and bothersome, like wearing someone else’s shoes. I kept evaluating things in terms of my preferences.
So this past week, I’ve been talking to God about this: To love “our church” is to love the people. We will never love our church until we love the people. And if you don’t love those people, then you don’t love people at all, because people are people. Do I love people? Do I love these people? God never once commanded us to love the worship style, to love the preaching style, to love the building. He never commanded us to love programs or procedures. He commanded us to love the people, and the people are the church.
Now I’m not saying that our individual likes and dislikes have no value. I wholeheartedly agree that we should find a local congregation where we can support the work of the ministry without reservation about essential issues. Not every congregation is for every person. But the majority of us aren’t in that boat. The majority of us, including myself, just need to ask God, Help me love my church. Help me love the people. Move me past myself and give me supernatural love for people, even the ones who are hard to love.
And finally, love for my church moves me beyond local congregation walls to love the church. The worldwide church of God–all true believers. Do I love people? Real people–the ugly ones. The bitter ones. The ones who don’t believe the same way I do. The ones who aren’t friendly or even nice sometimes. The ones who are annoying (aren’t we all?). Do you love your church? Let’s love our churches. And next time someone asks, “How do you like your church?” Let’s respond, “I love every one of them.”