Investing/Spending

THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST WITH NO PICTURES!

I'm having a time of personal growth.  In a spiritual sense.  I have been toying with this new idea.  I have concentrated a lot in my focus and energy on investing my life, thanks to the Reyner's influence in my life.  I have wanted to live purposefully.  I have wanted to pour into others, namely my children.  I think this has been a hugely impactful and beneficial concept in my life and to my parenting.  I am so grateful to them for teaching me this and living this out in front of me.  Yet I think I may have misunderstood it or more precisely, I have misused the concept a bit.

You see....when I hear invest....my personality says be careful.....be smart....not too risky....play it safe.  This is how I interpreted it...this is NOT what they taught me.  You see I am cautious by nature.  So if I invest in something...it better be worth it.  There better be a good return coming my way. I am also somewhat solitary by nature, so if I spend my time with you....it is a BIG deal.

What was worth investing in?  My Family. My Kids. My Sanity. My Relaxation. My Enjoyment. My Home. My Health. My Growth. My Kids Growth. My Kids Life Experiences....Do you notice a trend?  I'm thinking The Reyner's meant...EVEN SAID....Invest in things of eternal value.  Not invest in things I deem valuable.  My kids souls certainly fall into that category.....but memories, good times, stuff....certainly do not fall into that category.  The focus of what I deemed worthy of investment has been too small and a lot of it....not all...didn't have eternal value.  It was VERY self focused.  Hmmmm....

So today I got a little crazy and said (not out loud) "What if I change the word so I better understand the concept?  What if I get crazy and decide to Spend My Life?  What if I do it for people I don't even know?  What if I do it when it's not noticed or appreciated or fancy or validated?  What if I spend my life on someone I deem not worth it?  What if there is not a return....at least not this side of heaven?Christ spent his life for me.  How can I say someone isn't worth it?
What if I get crazy and spend my life on the lost and the poor and the exploited and foreigners?

This book....Jen Hatmaker's INTERRUPTED An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith is so in my head!  Here are a few quotes I can't stop thinking about.
"Hey, here's something crazy: In the Word, poverty, widows, hunger-these are not metaphors.  There are billions of lambs that literally need to be fed.  With food."
The following is a lengthy excerpt that has challenged my heart.  Now I know...so I have to do something.  If you read on....you will know to.  It may change and challenge you.  So read at your own risk.

The following is all from Jen Hatmaker's INTERRUPTED: (my two cents are written in bold....the rest is her's)

"Because these numbers are hard to wrap our minds around let's make this crisis more tangible. I submit the following not to shame the rich West but to offer perspective. If you've lived abroad or have global exposure, this will be familiar. But if you've never thought critically about swallowing the American pill, please come with me and step outside the construct of Western thought. These are pretty agreed-upon statistics, and if I encountered a discrepancy in the research, I went with the more conservative number:

• Of the 6 billion people on planet Earth, about 1.2 billion live on $.23 a day.
• Half the world lives on less than $2 a day.
• The wealthiest 1 billion people average $70 a day.
• If you make $35,000 annually you are in the top 4 percent......We are rich my friends.  Top 4 percent of the world.
• Someone dies of hunger every 16 seconds.  (these are not numbers they are real people)
• Last year 22 million people died of preventable diseases.  10 million were children.
• 27 million children and adults are trapped in slavery TODAY!!! (sex slaves, labor slaves, child soldiers, and child slaves) MORE SLAVES EXIST TODAY THAN EVER BEFORE IN HUMAN HISTORY.  It was not okay then and it is not okay now!!!
• In the last hour:
• 1,625 children were forced to the streets by the death or abuse of an adult.
• 115 children became prostitutes.
• 66 children under the age of fifteen were infected with HIV
• Roughly 1 billion people in the world do not have suitable housing and 100 million are entirely homeless.

Clearly, these are the problems of the poor.  When God shook Israel awake from her violent slumber, He said, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy" Ezekiel 16:49  I humbly propose that God is calling rich believers in America (which is all of us) to the same reform.  I optimistically believe that most are unconcerned because we're unaware.  Again, with perspective-not guilt-mongering-as our singular motive, let's try to impartially observe the global economic canvas on display for the rest of the world:

• 40 percent of the world lacks basic water sanitation, resulting in disease, death, wastewater for drinking, and loss of immunity.

• Americans consume 26 billion liters of bottled water a day I currently have a case in my pantry.

• We spend more annually on trash bags than nearly half the world spends on all goods combined.
• 4 out of 5 children worldwide work every day instead of go to school.
• 4 out of 5 Americans are high school graduates.
• 8 percent of the rest of the world owns a car.
• One-third of all American families own 3 cars.

• Roughly 40 million people (the equivalent of about 7 Jewish holocausts) die annually from starvation, disease, and malnutrition.
• 65 percent of US adults and 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. I am still overweight.

• The United States makes up 5 percent of the global population, but we consume 25 percent of the world's oil.
• We consume 20 million barrels of oil a day; next is China at just 6.9 million a day.
• 20 percent of our imported oil comes from the Persian Gulf.  We put military bases on 2 of their 3 Islamic holy sites, and when criticized, one US official replied, "Well, the United States must have free access to the region's resources.
•  When a group of leaders from 172 developed nations begged US government leaders to explore intervention options for environmental standards via the Earth Summit, President George HW Bush said, "The American way of life is not up for negotiation."

Brand America is in trouble.  Humbly, can you see why when Americans say democracy, the world hears greed?  What seems like basic freedom to us sounds like vast consumption to everyone else.  Their perception doesn't involve the millions of good hardworking Americans who give and care: it is largely based on the two disturbing ambassadors that represent our country globally: war and Hollywood. "

This is the end of her quote.

This is me talking:
What if I get used, laughed at, hurt, hated, taken advantage of?  What if in changing the way I live and interact with people outside my "investment portfolio"  and I actually can woe the lost to Christ.  What if by ministering to their REAL life needs.....I can earn an audience and tell them about Jesus.  I don't think tracts, or hit and miss charity, or inviting them to my awesome church, or blogging about how great God is and all my home school plans and dreams is going to do much.  But what if I enter into their lives.  I don't even begin to know what this looks like.  I have no big plans....just a lot of conviction.  My daily life doesn't have a ton of space...it is full...but I'm looking for ways to live out in the world what I am learning.  It may just be saving cereal boxes to send to Haiti but I'm hoping for something more.  Like people in Durham.  We shall see. 

My sister in-law Holly has been passionate about justice for the poor and needy for some time.  It is rubbing off on me.  She and her friends have started a group of women who care but don't know what to do.  I'll definitely be going to that.  I think as I learn about opportunities.....I may take a risk.  I may do a little more then I am comfortable with.  I may sacrifice and spend myself....I think in spending my life I may end up investing it in eternity, which is exactly what Shay and Linda meant.  God is working in me.
Hmmmm.....for now it is cereal boxes.....but who knows!

Sometimes I think too much!