Showing posts with label Wealth. Show all posts

I just made myself some tea and it's TOO HOT.  I actually have to let it sit and cool down a little.  Can you believe how horrible this is...what a waste of time...and now my tongue hurts.


Oh the humanity!


I get amazed at the little things that bother me.  Slow Wi-Fi.  The car's making a rattling sound.  Nothing in the fridge I feel like eating.  Having to be in Anchorage when I'd rather go on a bike ride.

And, around the world, we have people dying of hunger, going to bed on the streets, fighting in wars, living in abject poverty, waking up not knowing if there will be clean water today.

Puts my too hot tea in perspective.

Of late I've been following "First World Pains" on Twitter and have been thoroughly amused at how it pokes fun at the very trivial things in the grand scheme of life that bother us here in the first world...the issues those living in the third world or the developing world could only hope to be bothered with...if they weren't too concerned with just trying to survive another day. It's all a matter of perspective.  Here's a selection of some of their recent tweets:

• I didn't get into Harvard, so now I have to go to Yale. 
• I just got back from vacation and I have 6 TV shows I need to catch up on.
• I forgot my head phones at home so now I can't listen to music while on the bus.
• There's never a good marshmallow to cereal ratio in my Lucky Charms.
• I just got a text message, but both my arms are so warm and comfortable under the blanket.
• My ice cream started to melt, so I had to eat it really fast.
• The new Sun Chips bag is too loud.
• I want to take a bath, but my only option is a stand up shower.
• I'm only six months into the payment of my car, but it doesn't represent me as a person anymore.
• I can't decide between the ribeye and the sirloin steak.
• I don't feel personally fulfilled by my college education.
• My state is spending tons of money to improve our roads so I have to drive through miles of construction every morning.
• The Netflix blurb was really descriptive and it gave away too much of the film.
• I've been laying down so long that my back is starting to hurt.
• Forgot about my muffins and they are about to expire. Had to eat 8 muffins in an hour.

I even found a kid doing a wrap about some of the various "pains" we have in the first world.




Let's face it. We are blessed to be in the first world...at least when it comes to material things.

All of my problems...well, they're pretty minor in the scheme of the world's issues.

And now my tea has cooled down enough to drink.  One less pain now.

Not sure if it's entirely true...but my guess is there's a lot of truth here.

From over at Indexed.

Image by ChicagoGeek via FlickrThis is a list compiled by LifeWay Research and Outreach Magazine.

Top 5 Largest U.S. Churches

1. Lakewood Church, Houston, Texas, Joel Osteen, (43,500)

2. North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, Ga., Andy Stanley (24,325)

3. Second Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, Ed Young Sr. (24,041)

4. Willow Creek Community Church, South Barington, Ill., Bill Hybels (24,000)

5. Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Ky., Dave Stone (19,230)

First, take a look at Joel Osteen's church attendance in comparison to the others.  That's huge.  I guess a prosperity theology, where you believe that wealth and power are rewards for pious Christians, is about twice as attractive as a more orthodox belief.  Perhaps this says something about the lure of wealth in our society.

Second, Willow Creek is still up there.  I've attended conferences there and have paid attention to Bill Hybels' work over the years.

Third, I noticed that Girdwood Chapel didn't make the list...yet.

Image via Wikipedia

I was given Mitch Albom's book, "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" to read by a new friend in Girdwood.  He thought I'd enjoy it and, being told it contained "a church with a hole in the roof," I thought I would be right at home in reading it.  I haven't made it through all of it yet, but there are moments of great inspiration here as the author weaves the story of being asked to do a eulogy for his childhood rabbi with the story of a church in Detroit.  There's a lot of grace here.  There's a lot of love.  And there is a lot to learn from both the main characters.

There is a whole chapter about Reb (the rabbi) which asks the question, "What is rich?"  It's a question I've asked myself and I struggle with (as anyone who reads this blog knows).  I struggle with wanting more than what I have.  I struggle with wanting to know how much money I'd have to save to be "OK" later in life.  I struggle with wanting to give more to my church, for its work and for its construction.  There is so much to give to in this life and the voice of the world keeps telling us that we don't have enough, even just to get by.

What is it that I've heard?  Everyone, no matter what their income, believes that if they JUST had 20% more than what they had now, they'd be OK.  20% more for the welfare family.  20% more for the millionaire.  20%!

According to Albom, "The Reb had never been big on stuff.  But then, he'd never had much of it."

I'm concerned about what our American "Prosperity Gospel" -- which can, in some churches, teach that God intends financial prosperity for God's children.  It can be full of false promises and false hope.  And, from what I've read, it can have the benefit of encouraging better money management and a "Protestant Work Ethic" among its followers.  However, this concerns me in a region of such poverty.


The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Yeah, I know. More stuff about money. It keeps coming at me, doesn't it? This was from Pete Wilson's blog, Without Wax. It's a quote from G. Cambell Morgan that puts a good spiritual perspective on our propensity to store up riches on earth.   The Biblical background is Matthew 6:19-21:

  ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Here's the good quote:

G. Campbell Morgan says, “You are to remember with the passion burning within you, that you are not the child of today, you are not of the earth, you are more than dust; you are the child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of Deity.

The measurements of your lives cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky kisses green earth. All the fact of your life cannot be encompassed in the one small sphere upon which you live. You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth,– poor, sorry, silly soul,– you have made a fortune and stored it, in a place where you cannot hold it.

Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning…. We cannot lay up our treasure on earth, it is not characteristic of those in His Kingdom. It was characteristic of the Pharisees. In a sense He was saying to them, “This is just another indication that you are not in My Kingdom no matter what you claim. People in My Kingdom don’t lay up treasure on earth.”

Good stuff.