Sparing and Sharing
"It’s easy to get absorbed in our own little worlds and completely miss the way the rest of the world lives. And I can say this because it's what I did for a very long time. But I dare you, I beg you to hear this truth: your normal isn’t the world’s normal, and the greatest deception is that you believe that it is."
- Kristen Welch, Raising World Changers in a Changing World (How One Family Discovered the Beauty of Sacrifice and the Joy of Giving)
Along with the call to missions, we are also embracing the call to live a sparing-sharing lifestyle. This gospel message is thoroughly presented in Father Thomas Dubay's book, Happy Are You Poor, which includes "An Examen" in the back of the book to help each of us discern how to live this message in our own lives with questions such as...
"Is my concern for the dire destitution of the millions in the third and fourth worlds mostly abstract, or does it change my concrete manner of living? Do I so live that I/we have something to share with them?"
"Are we in vain in our dress...our home...its furnishings...our car...our other possessions?"
"Do I/we give to the poor not only from our superfluities but also from our own need?"
"Am I willing to embrace the self-denial and suffering gospel poverty necessarily entails"
"Have I read sufficiently well-documented lives of the saints that I may know how they typically think and act, how they heroically concretize the Gospel?"
"Where honestly is my center of gravity? Of what do I like to speak when I have a willing listener?"
"Have we worked out a balance between caring for the family on one hand and for the poor on the other?"
As our family periodically revisits such questions we know that we have made great strides, but can also see areas where we have a looooooooong way to go. The irony is that, while many of our first world companions would consider some of our lifestyle choices to be unnecessary or radical, the majority of people (including nearly half the world that is attempting to survive on less than 1 or 2 dollars a day) would argue that we're rich. Actually...if you're reading this, you're most likely rich as well!
Not rich? "If you and I have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes, food, even public transportation, we are in the top 15 percent of the world’s people for wealth." (David Platt, Radical - Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream) "In other words, a small percentage of us has access to most of the world’s resources while a large percentage of the world doesn't have enough for one day." (Kristen Welch, Raising World Changers in a Changing World)
In No Longer a Slumdog K.P. Yohannan asks,
"How many more cars, clothes, toys and trinkets do we really need before we wake up and realize that half the world goes to bed every night with empty stomachs and naked bodies?"
"More than 26,000 children today will die due to starvation or a preventable disease." (David Platt, Radical)
In comparison to these disturbing global statistics, most Americans are beyond blessed...
But...Why has God blessed us?
David Platt provides an answer to this question in his best-selling book, Radical, "After spending a week around precious children who eat a small cup of porridge a day…Why has God blessed us when others have so little? 'I have blessed you for my glory. Not so you will have a comfortable life with a big house and a nice car. Not so you can spend lots of money on vacations, education, or clothing. Those aren’t bad things, but I’ve blessed you so that the nations will know me and see my glory.'”
Radical explores how the biblical gospel affects individual Christian lives...
“Simply put, in a world of urgent spiritual and physical need, gospel-believing, God-exalting men and women do not have time to waste their lives pursuing a Christian spin on the American dream.”
Kristen Welch further challenges us when she asks, "What if we aren't blessed at all?...What if we have so much not because we are blessed but because we simply keep it to ourelves?...What if we have been given so much because we are supposed to give it away and not keep it?"..."What if instead of giving God the minimum we gave him the most?"
As always, it is our wish that you will prayerfully consider what we've shared, and allow God to use it to plant, tend, or harvest seeds for His glory in your own life! No matter where you are in life right now (or where you've been), we hope you know how much God loves you!! And that He created you in His image to do great things (or, in the words of St. Mother Teresa, to "do small things with great love!") John Piper says, “If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great."
We will leave you with two final questions that K.P. Yohannan in his book Revolution in World Mission has implored every North American Christian to ask themselves:
1. Why do you think God has allowed you to be born in North America...and to be blessed with such material and spiritual abundance?
2. In light of the superabundance you enjoy, what do you think is your minimal responsibility to the untold millions of lost and suffering in the world?
