I dont' mean to be ugly, but in church, when it's time for people to come up and give testimonies about their experience on a mission trip.... well I'll just say, even typing the sentence made me bored. Talk about a who's who of either A. public speaking phobics who would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy and got tricked into this gig whilst on a delusionally emotional mission trip high, or B. people who have just been biding their time for about the last 15 years, just waiting for such an opportunity to have the ears of everyone they know helplessly captive. Christians need some kind of worship band equivalent to Oscars orchestra music. One step classier than a loud throat clearing but no less effective in letting them know, yeah you're done.
Anyway. Digression.
The point is, amongst the incoherent mumblings or the euphoric release of the storage bank of every anecdote they know on what must surely be mental flashcards, respectively, you can, if you pay attention (it's rare) discern a common theme. People consistently include amongst their many trips impressions this thought: even though they have nothing and we have so much, the people there seemed so much more joyful than we do. It's an overused cliche, almost to the point of packing little punch, but if you think about it, that is an oddity. People have nothing at all, no houses, no food, no clean clothes, no shoes, no water - really nothing, and they're crazy joyful. That might be able to make a little sense, except that it's married to this fact. We AREN'T joyful. We've got all that stuff - we've got safe places to live, we have rights in our country, we have cars, we have good clothes, we aren't hungry and thirsty... If you can muscle your way over the incredible cheesiness, it actually is a bit baffling. Now, I'm no Marcionite, so I don't think that the God of the NT is different in person or character from the God of the OT and if we think that, then we can't say having stuff or wealth or riches is a bad thing. God was crazy proud of Abraham and Joseph and David and others, and all of them were very wealthy - He was proud of their faith and character and lives and so He blessed them in part with material wealth. So I'm not at all saying that wealth or things are bad. But it is a little amazing that we have all been blessed with all of these things and we're discontent, unhappy, greedy, and miserable, while the impoverished, hungry Christians of the third world are joyful and jubilant and generous and happy. What is that? I think that maybe, it isn't that material wealth is bad, it's just that it gets in the way.
Our joy needs to be found in the things of Heaven but that's much harder than finding it in tangible, immediate things that are right here. So maybe it's that, if it's available, we'll try and find our joy in the easy things and stop there (which of course doesn't work, which is why we're so unhappy) but if you're poor, you have nothing, and it isn't available, you're forced - not by choice but my lack of options - to push on towards the healthier, more eternal business of finding joy in the things of Heaven because you don't have any other options. Maybe this is why Jesus says, "blessed are the poor, because theirs is the kingdom of Heaven" (I know it actually says blessed are the poor in spirit, but I'm going to indulge the thought) Maybe the kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor, not because it's more freely given to them, but because it's given equally to everyone and the poor are the only ones who don't get distracted by other stuff and actually grab for it because they don't have anything else. I think that it isn't about having stuff or not having stuff or whether stuff is good or bad or whatever.
I think people in the Church both feel and are made to feel too guilty for being wealthy. Like I said, people of whom God was very proud were very wealthy, we can't deny that. It isn't about the goodness or badness of the stuff - I happen to think the stuff is neutral. It's about the fact that if people can do a quicker, easier thing to get to an end that feels the same (and being satisfied in your stuff and being satisfied in God does feel the same right at first, I think), they will. Forgive the overly and inaccurately used term, but I think we have spiritual ADD - if there's something frivolous and simple and petty right there in the way, we'll get easily distracted from the better thing, like a little kid who missed his whole class lecture because of his pencil or his shoelaces or the butterflies outside. We want to find joy, but we get distracted because there's so much other stuff to be distracted by. All these crazy joyful poor people are crazy joyful because we all try to find joy, it's just that they have no other options other than to press forward until the find joy in the Lord. There isn't anything else laying around! Like I said, maybe not a choice, maybe a lack of options. But maybe a lucky lack of options.
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