Saturday, 31 January 2009

• How Do You Rescue a Damsel if She Doesn't Think She's in Distress?

  
  A $3 coffee doesn't seem all that frivolous. But five $3 coffees a week and you suddenly have a guilt-ridden $60-per-month java addiction.
  
  That sly sixty dollars goes right in one pocket and out the other without so much as an ounce of buyer's remorse. Coffee is after all, one of life's necessities, is it not?  Yet compared to the $60 Emille M. purse that I desperately wanted but responsibly declined, suddenly my daily coffee ritual scratches like the fraying edges of the old purse I'm carrying now.  At the end of the month, all I will have to show for the coffee is a slightly more dependent stimulus and approximately 1,400 calories in half and half. 
  
  I think I'd rather have the purse.
  
  

  Resolution # 2 - I will not spend more than I have.
  

  
  In truth, this resolution excites me. It's one part of a bigger movement that's been brewing in me for the last few months. A change of mind, which inevitably forces a change of heart.  Those are wise words by the way -- in case you need to read that sentence over again.
  
  What do we deserve anyway? At risk of getting all tree-hugger on you, what makes you think you deserve anything at all?  Mom wasn't kidding about the starving kids in Africa when she wanted you to eat those soggy peas.  In fact, she was sheltering you from the harsh reality of it.  They are more than just starving. And here I am, visiting zappos.com with religious fervor to see if I can find the "perfect" pair of leather slouch boots in just the right shade of brown.
  
  Of all the countries in the world, why was I born here?  What did I do to deserve a life of plenty instead of a life of starvation?
  
  Jesus is on the record as saying "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:25). How many of us have read that scripture and thought, "wow, am I glad I'm not rich!".  I know I did. Until last year, when my eyes were opened to the true meaning of that passage.
  
  I am rich. When Jesus made that statement, he was talking about you and me.
  
  Here in the free world, we have a life of luxury riddled with instant gratification and self-satisfaction.  We can sit on our laurels and satisfy ourselves with the many pleasures that abound at every turn. And yet Jesus said that to be a true Christian, one must "deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). He expects us to sacrifice the ways of this world for the ways of him.
  
  But when you're so sure of yourself, who needs a Saviour?  When life is so full of pleasure, who wants to sacrifice?
  
  
  Some of you can relate to the feeling of when tragedy strikes.  When you realize that all of your accomplishments and accolades won't pull you out of the pit and an entire world of guilty pleasures won't fulfill the aching void that ravages your soul.
  
  It's at this point of total emptiness that the barriers fall away and out of sheer desperation, you accept your need for a Saviour. For something bigger than yourself because your self isn't working for you all that much. One could say it kind of cheapens the whole experience...nobody wants to be a last resort...but in His infinite grace and mercy, God embraces you like a lost child that's now been found. His love for you runs so deep that he gladly accepts your ditch effort and awakens your soul with a peace that overwhelms and a comfort that escapes words.
  
  And that is salvation.
  
  
  When I began, I really thought we had the advantage over the starving, desparate kids of the third-world countries. I was going to write about how we should live with less, knowing how fortunate we really are. I failed to understand that those very kids are accepting Christ's love and following him, by the millions, simply because their hopeless environment creates fewer barriers for them to embrace God's waiting love.
  
  So send your peas, and monthly contributions, and whatever else it is that you do to support the poor, and then hope that in exchange, they will offer up a prayer for you. For if this life is just a minute in all of eternity, perhaps they, with little to sacrifice in this earthly realm, are the ones with the advantage after all.
  
  

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