Treasure
Posted By Andrew on December 2, 2009
Did someone press the fast forward button on life’s remote while I wasn’t looking? I come here to update our blog and the last post is nearly two months old. Sigh. How does this always happen? Anyway, a quick peek into our life during the last two months would seem to be in order for those patient friends and family members who keep checking this site in hopes of finding something new.
One of the reasons I’ve been so remiss in writing is that we’ve been in the unfortunate position of having Mommy largely out of commission with early pregnancy sickness. Although Elizabeth is starting to feel better now and is attacking projects with something like her usual zest, she had a longer than usual period of morning sickness that had her somewhat sidelined. I did my best to help out with kitchen duty, the girls each do their own laundry, and everyone pitched in with cleaning and household chores to make it through that time. One of our biggest reasons for giving thanks at Thanksgiving was that Mommy had finally turned a corner and was starting to rejoin the land of the living.
Jenny and Melody got to go to PA to spend Thanksgiving with Grandpa and Grandma K. They were rather proud of themselves for being big enough to make the trip with our friends Duane and LeAnn, and by all reports they had a fantastic holiday. Elizabeth and I took advantage of their absence to put Gabe at his aunt Beka’s house for the weekend while we headed off to Charleston for a mini-vacation. We had a fabulous time wandering the streets of the historic waterfront area, and enjoyed gorgeous weather as a bonus. Every time we go on one of these excursions, we promise ourselves we’re going to take another one in two months or less. About a year later we find ourselves asking what happened to that idea. This time I’m determined to make it happen, so check back about mid January to see where we go next time. 
Another ongoing story in our lives came about as a result of reading a book by Francis Chan. He made an eloquent plea for a radical response to God’s radical love toward us. We had to face the fact that many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world are suffering and in dire need, yet we’ve done appallingly little to help them. We know they’re suffering, and we say they’re part of God’s family, yet their plight does not move us. What if it was my child who lived on the streets, hungry and abandoned? What if it was my brother who was in prison for his faith? What if my parents had to beg in the streets to survive? I would stop at nothing to rescue them, but such suffering on the part of my spiritual family has generated no radical response.
The most profoundly life-changing statement from Chan’s book was a simply fact, mentioned almost in passing: as long as you spend more on yourself than on your neighbor, you have no credibility in claiming that you love your neighbor as yourself. That thought has haunted me ever since, and I can’t argue it away. While we enjoy a standard of living that is among the highest in the world, some of our brothers and sisters live in abject poverty and suffering, scavenging for food in dumpsters and landfills, living in squalor, and struggling to survive.
How will we ever look those people -those members of our family- in the eye and tell them, “I loved you as I loved myself while I battled other frenzied shoppers on Black Friday to snatch up deals on gadgets I didn’t need at the same time that you lacked basic food”? (Note: I got up early on Black Friday to get one of those deals, then thought of the families of living martyrs in Vietnam, and crawled back into bed. Haven’t regretted it a bit, and VOM offers a great opportunity to bless those Vietnamese members of our family at Christmas.) Can they be blamed for a healthy skepticism when we assure them that we seek those things above, not things of the earth? Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart is. Never mind that 99% of American preachers falsely claim that the reverse is true, that you can just keep your heart in heaven and safely lay up all the treasure on earth that you please. The reality is that where you’re investing is where your heart is. Don’t blame me; it was Jesus Who said that.
I don’t claim to know what this means in your life, but I do know our life is changing rapidly, and I’m excited about the journey. “More blessed to give than to receive” is not just a feel-good quote. It’s a reality that is deeply satisfying to experience.
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Excellent Brother!!! I enjoyed reading this post so much. It is so refreshing to hear someone share of conviction and change, rather than water-it-down and make-an-excuse. Thankyou so much. I also was convicted by a couple of proverbs this morning. “He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who is kind to the needy. He who opposses the poor shows contempt for their maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” pr. 14:21, 31. Keep us updated on the journey.
It was a blessed day when I learned to let go of “my” money.