Off to a banquet for Bethany Christian Services. will let you know more about it when i get back
[Update] The banquet was incredible. bethany was celebrating 1000 children adopted into families in the deleware valley area. very moving stories from a woman who had given her child up for adoption at age 16, several families who adopted children through bethany, and children who had been placed in adoptive families. and yes, we gave money (that was the point of the evening, after all). the banquet came at the interesting time in our lives where God has been reminding us that all we have is his and our call is to respond to his giving of himself by giving away what he has given us.
amid all the political rhetoric that's flying about and annoying most of us, it was refreshing to hear stories of grace and be reminded that Jesus is transforming all of creation, including how people experience family.
speaking of how people experience family, we ended the evening by going out for some low-carb ice cream with our house-mates.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Giving Money
Sunday night we have a group of young people come to our house for dinner and worship/bible study. last sunday we read about how people in the early church would bring gifts and put them at the feet of the apostles. the pastor had used this passage from Acts to teach that people should give money to their local church. the connection between me and the early church left me feeling a little empty inside. here's why:
like everything else in america, i'm prevented from seeing the entire process. i don't grow my food (except a few herbs and some spinach) - i buy it at the store all ready for me to eat. i don't grow cotton, don't put it through the gin, don't spin it into thread, don't weave cloth, can't sew (not very well, at least) but i wear all kinds of cool clothes. my shoes were made by people i've never met in morocco, and the music i listen to is played by artists i've never seen.
same with the money i give. i hand it over, and i have no idea where it goes. yeah, i can read the church's budget, but again, i'm removed from the actual end result.
i have a feeling that the money the early church laid at the apostle's feet went to feed the widow who lived on the next block - the one you saw every day. you know she was helped by the money you gave because you saw her preparing food the next day after she hadn't eaten in two. the orphans who received some of the clothes you gave sat next to you at the church's dinner, looking much better now they were fully clothed.
i'm not saying we should stop giving to the church. and i certainly don't want to remove the blessing of giving blindly. jesus said our giving should be done in a way that our right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. but i think that's different from just blindly handing over the money to the elders to pay for the machine that is the church. especially when the things the early church used the money for are the things my church designates for its special once-a-month "deacon's offering", which is supposed to be above and beyond any regular giving to the church.
apologies for the long post. i'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
like everything else in america, i'm prevented from seeing the entire process. i don't grow my food (except a few herbs and some spinach) - i buy it at the store all ready for me to eat. i don't grow cotton, don't put it through the gin, don't spin it into thread, don't weave cloth, can't sew (not very well, at least) but i wear all kinds of cool clothes. my shoes were made by people i've never met in morocco, and the music i listen to is played by artists i've never seen.
same with the money i give. i hand it over, and i have no idea where it goes. yeah, i can read the church's budget, but again, i'm removed from the actual end result.
i have a feeling that the money the early church laid at the apostle's feet went to feed the widow who lived on the next block - the one you saw every day. you know she was helped by the money you gave because you saw her preparing food the next day after she hadn't eaten in two. the orphans who received some of the clothes you gave sat next to you at the church's dinner, looking much better now they were fully clothed.
i'm not saying we should stop giving to the church. and i certainly don't want to remove the blessing of giving blindly. jesus said our giving should be done in a way that our right hand doesn't know what the left is doing. but i think that's different from just blindly handing over the money to the elders to pay for the machine that is the church. especially when the things the early church used the money for are the things my church designates for its special once-a-month "deacon's offering", which is supposed to be above and beyond any regular giving to the church.
apologies for the long post. i'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Life's a Zoo?
Sitting in front of our fireplace with a smoldering log. My life is far removed from the dangerous. Fire is just one more thing to box up and enjoy from a distance. We even have fire insurance plans to protect us if things get out of hand. Is this a 21c American thing, or do all humans put danger in a cage?
Welcome
Thanks for dropping by! In the coming days and months you'll find posts on all sorts of topics. Think of them as trail markers on the walking tour of my life.
I've been wrestling with the notion of being a steward lately (hence the blog title). What it means when God says "You are not your own, you were bought at a price." The paradox of the whole thing is that this journey I'm on, this life I'm living that I love so much and am so intimately connected to, it doesn't even belong to me. I'm going to have to give an accounting of it to God one day.
So...here we go. Thanks for joining me on the journey, and stop back often.
I've been wrestling with the notion of being a steward lately (hence the blog title). What it means when God says "You are not your own, you were bought at a price." The paradox of the whole thing is that this journey I'm on, this life I'm living that I love so much and am so intimately connected to, it doesn't even belong to me. I'm going to have to give an accounting of it to God one day.
So...here we go. Thanks for joining me on the journey, and stop back often.
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