I have found it harder and harder to give money away in the last couple of years since we have hit "comfortable"

I have found it harder and harder to give money away in the last couple of years since we have hit "comfortable"

 I have written this list for me as a reminder of what I am called to do on both the days when it is easy and the days when it is hard.

I don't know what it is about money. It emits a strong, overwhelming, magnetic pull.

It makes me loose my bearings till I am lost without quite knowing how or why.

Luckily there is a map from which I can navigate my way back to the "narrow gate."

 That map is faith.

There are so many emotions attached to money, the primary one being fear.

Fear of deprivation, sudden poverty, loss of a lifestyle or dream that one is trying to build.

And money isn't really the heart of it all anyway. It is a symbol of something that runs far deeper.

A need for security, a feeling of freedom, possibility, choice and comfort that we all have deep within us.

We want to provide not just for ourselves but for our children. Yet there is a great deception with money.

It cannot buy the really important things. If anything, the striving for it destroys them.

So this list is something that might help me remember what I want my life to be about a little more.

 As Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world."

And as the great mystic and poet Rumi often alluded. If only we new the sweetness of the paradoxes we would not be such prisoners of wealth. 

So here is my list... 

1 ) Buy less

“When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.” John Wesley 

Here is a story about John Wesley.

While at Oxford, an incident changed his perspective on money. He had just finished paying for some pictures for his room when one of the chambermaids came to his door. It was a cold winter day, and he noticed that she had nothing to protect her except a thin linen gown. He reached into his pocket to give her some money to buy a coat but found he had too little left. Immediately, the thought struck him that the Lord was not pleased with the way he had spent his money. He asked himself, Will thy Master say, “Well done, good and faithful steward?” Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold! O justice! O mercy! Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid?
What Wesley Did

Perhaps as a result of this incident, in 1731, Wesley began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses 28 pounds, so he had 2 pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still managed to live on 28 pounds, so he had 32 pounds to give to the poor. In the third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds. Instead of letting his expenses rise with his income, he kept them to 28 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In the fourth year, he received 120 pounds. As before, his expenses were 28 pounds, so his giving rose to 92 pounds.

Wesley felt that the Christian should not merely tithe but give away all extra income once the family and creditors were taken care of. He believed that with increasing income,

what should rise is not the Christian’s standard of living but the standard of giving.

This practice, begun at Oxford, continued throughout his life. Even when his income rose into the thousands of pounds sterling, he lived simply and he quickly gave away his surplus money. One year his income was a little over 1400 pounds. He lived on 30 pounds and gave away nearly 1400 pounds. Because he had no family to care for, he had no need for savings. He was afraid of laying up treasures on earth, so the money went out in charity as quickly as it came in. He reports that he never had 100 pounds at any one time.

I do not need all I think I do. The surplus spending has more to do with seeking a thrill or filling a void rather than satisfying a real need. Usually the things I think I can satisfy with money can be better satisfied with God.

2) Buy ethical

"For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required" Luke 12:48

Companies that do not respect the environment, animal welfare or human dignity should be boycotted by those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice.

Purchases are often made quickly, without thought to the wider cost. 

Example...

I am thirsty I buy plastic bottled water or Cola. 

I'm out and it's lunchtime, I quickly run into a MacDonald's. 

I want to save on the kids clothes so I buy a pile of cheap t'shirts.

 I'm bored so I subscribe to a bunch of magazines  probably won't read. 

I want to get rid of the weeds on my driveway so it looks like the neighbour's one so I pour chemicals. 

The list is endless...

Cheap products may be convenient and light on the purse but someone is paying the price.

The Bible is full of content deriding unfair or unjust scales.

Not treating others with fairness sets us up against God. 

God is on the side of the poor and oppressed throughout the Bible, not the well fed and comfortable.

If we buy something unethical we are an accomplice to a bigger crime that ultimately feeds the enemy.

We are a part of the bargain whether we like to think it or not.

 "Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty."

James 5

 __________________________________________________________ 

  

Your destruction of animals will terrify you.

Habbakuk 2 

---

Jeremiah 22:13 "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.

---

Ezekiel 22:27 Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain.

---

Malachi 3:5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.

3) Keep the poor close

I'd often rather keep my metaphorical doors and windows closed and live in the gated world of my own beauty, peace and comfort than have to walk past "Lazarus" and out into the wider world of suffering and poverty. 

 But we are called to bear the cross of one another's sufferings and burdens if we are to inherit life.

This was Jesus's central message. 

To keep the poor close I must hear their stories. I must not flinch or turn away or walk to the other side of the road.

I am so often the Pharisee in the good Samaritan. I see the difference between us.

They have a different religion, a different culture to me.

They live far away on the other side of the world. They are somehow separate from me.

Maybe I don't like the way in which they may use their money.

Maybe I blame them for their situation, as if I believe people seek out a life bereft of dignity.

No matter, I judge them and my judgement snuffs out my compassion.

Or I am simply too busy with my own life. Embroiled in a never ending list of duties that so often have little to do with the Kingdom of God.

So many reasons to cross to the other side of the road.

But I must see the poor, look for them, seek them out.

Lower my living standards to be closer to them.

I, them, we are deeply linked. Neighbours. More than that. We are brothers and sisters for we share the same Father.

How would I feel if I had two children one rich and the other poor and desperate and my rich child enjoyed her life without sharing her wealth with her poor sibling?

Maybe I would judge the poor sibling.

Though my Father God says don't judge as the brother of the prodigal judged.

When we truly understand what it is to walk in another's shoes we cannot judge.

To be close to the poor means I have to limit my own wealth by sharing what I have. 

4)  Really believe the Gospel and the Word of God.

 When Jesus mentions "Hellfire" it is in regard treatment of the poor.

‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

Luke 16

 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. ” 

Matthew 25 

Again when He mentions "The Kingdom" which is like a symbol for life as Zion, Jerusalem or Heaven  is He does so with respect to the poor. This is particularly evident in the Story of the Rich Young Man

"And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²²  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

²³ And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁴ And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is^[a] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Mark 10

How we treat the poor seems to be a crucial factor for Jesus. 

How we treat the poor is Jesus's bottom line.

In so much as He says it is even more important than our faith in Him for he says...

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Do I really believe the Gospel? If I do my very life depends upon how I act on it.

5) Keep a gratitude list

A few years ago Ann encouraged me to keep a gratitude journal.  

It changed my life.

It changed my life because it changed my perspective. 

Instead of focusing on my imagined lack my eyes were opened to the abundance that lay before me in the smallest, simplest most ordinary detail. 

When we are not living in a state of want either spiritual, emotional or mental we are much more likely to be generous.

We naturally want to share of our abundance, our brimming cup!

Gratitude opens the heart like a sun opens the tight bud of a rose.

Till petal upon petal, upon petal unfolds. Beauty and fragrance throughout the whole garden.

6)Pray

This may be last on my list but it is not the least important.

Maybe it is the very most important thing of all.

From sincere prayer true fruit is borne.

It is the nourishing fertile earth of all good action.

Often I run around like a headless chicken imagining all the good I am accomplishing.

Yet really my action is rooted in pride, ego and a feeling of trying to make myself worthy.

I want to feel like I deserve this life, this comfort, these opportunities.

It's a way of securing my legacy and cementing my perception of myself, my identity.

Truly more harm has been done to this world by action than contemplation.

Remember Mary?

 " But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

41“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed.^f Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

 Luke 10

Prayer prunes away the superfluous and the extraneous.

It gets to the core and the roots of my action and sets it straight.

Prayer means that I do good instead of harm with my actions.

Prayer is humble, it helps me realise that only the things that matter are things  I accomplish in union with

" The Vine " 

As Father Richard Rohr says "We are less what we say or what we do than the energy we emanate"

Prayer emanates pure, life giving energy. It has a real and physical effect on the material world.

I sign off this post with a poignant poem from Rumi which I feel is particularly pertinent for the modern world though her wrote it some 600 years ago.

City of Saba

There is a glut of wealth in the City of Saba.

Everyone has more than enough. Even

the bath stokers wear gold belts. Huge grape clusters hang down on every street and

brush the faces of the citizens. No one has to do anything. You can balance

a basket on your head and walk through an orchard, and it will fill by itself with

overripe fruit dropping into it. Stray dogs stray in lanes full of thrown-out

scraps with barely a notice. The lean desert wolf gets indigestion from the rich

food. Everyone is fat and satiated with all the extra.

This overrichness is a subtle disease. Those who have it are blind

to what’s wrong and deaf to anyone who points it out. The City of Saba cannot be

understood from within itself: But there is a cure, an individual medicine, not

a social remedy: sit quietly, and listen for a voice within that will say, *Be

more silent*. As that happens, your soul starts to revive Give up talking and

your positions of power. Give up the excessive money. Turn toward teachers and

prophets who dont live in Saba. They can help you grow sweet again and fragrant

and wild and fresh and thankful for any small event.