He who dies with the most toys...

You know how sometimes how you go back to the home you grew up in and uncover a part of yourself? That's what happened to me when we visited my Dad this past weekend.

I sincerely love and admire my Dad. I attribute a great deal of what is good about the man I am today to what I learned from him. But the man is not without his faults. For instance...

My Dad is a Pack Rat

You know what I'm talking about...he stores stuff everywhere. The dining room table, kitchen table and kitchen counter are so overflowing with papers that you have to clear a path every time you want to eat. Both my brother's and my old bedrooms are chock full of boxes and random loose items. The TV/computer room is so full that there's barely a path to the easy chair. The 2-car garage is a 0-car garage. And the barn...we won't even go there.

I, on the other hand, have an aversion to great piles of stuff. I'm not a clean person by any means, but there is a "breaking point" to how much stuff piling up that I can handle. When I make the time to go through and get rid of things, to make my life simpler and cleaner, I get this amazing feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.

As I walked through my Dad's house, this sickening feeling hit me:

One day my father is going to die...

...and I'm going to have to clean all this up.

Visions of bulldozers shoving stuff out the second-story windows danced through my mind.

That night, we attended a Worship concert by a man named Paul Wilbur (www.wilburministries.com). Paul is a Messianic Jew who has a heart for reaching the nations with the word of Yeshua (Jesus). He told us the story of his recent trip to Zambia, Africa.

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of the people have, quite literally, nothing. No shelter, no food...and certainly no big piles of stuff. On top of that, they have one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids in the world.

The average life expectancy is 40.

Let that fact float around in your head for a little while.

As Paul told this story and led us through an incredible time of worship, I couldn't help but think of the contrasts. We live in the richest country in the world. We say we have money problems, but are living on literal piles of stuff that represents more money than many people in the world will ever see. We have so much stuff that we don't even have the time to manage it all. We keep meaning to get rid of things, to fix things, to store things in different places, but can never quite find the time. There's a word for that:

Slavery

We are slaves to our stuff.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says this:

"You say, 'I am allowed to do anything' - but not everything is good for you. And even though 'I am allowed to do anything,' I must not become a slave to anything." (I Cor 6:12, NLT)

The contrast I draw above should appeal to your sense of justice, but it shouldn't make you feel guilty. There's nothing wrong with owning stuff. The problem is when we allow our stuff to own us.

So what's that look like in your life? In what ways does your stuff own you? What could you do to simplify, to cut back?

This week we're going to be talking about ways we can serve our Community. Lisa has a great idea she's going to share about how we can take all that stuff we all have piling up and give it to real people with real needs. I encourage you to pray about how you can contribute to this. It's not just about helping others, it's also about helping ourselves.

John

The Ballad of Ray

Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Ray...

Ray is a student at WMU. I met him a few weeks ago in the Threads parking lot.

He hit my car.

He was pulling out a bit carelessly and dinged our front driver-side wheel well with his bumper. He was very apologetic, not at all wishing to get out of his responsibility. We exchanged numbers and parted ways. The next day I took the car into the body shop for an estimate.

$850.

Now if you take a look at my car, you will see a dent where Ray hit it, but it's the type of thing that if you don't know it's there, you may not even notice. It's insignificant. But it costs $850 to get it fixed.

I talked to Ray and told him the bad news. He called me back the next day, wanting to pay cash instead of going through insurance. I don't have any problem cutting the insurance companies out of the loop, but paying $850 cash for something this insignificant? This made me stop and think.

Michelle & I thought and prayed over the situation the next few days. $850 is a lot of money. There are a lot of people that could use that money for a lot more important things than fixing some cosmetic damage to an 8 year old car. People that have significant needs. Christ Followers in China who need Bibles. Children dying in Africa. People on the North Side of Kalamazoo who have to choose between heat and food in the winter.

We talked to Ray last night. We told him that we believed in the concept of stewardship, that we need to take care of everything God gives us. But that concept also extends to others. It would be foolish and hypocritical for us to think that fixing that damage wasn't worth $850 of our money, but it was worth $850 of his money.

So we forgave him.

We told him he didn't owe us anything.

We didn't stop there, though. We explained why we were doing it. How we feel there are so many better uses for that money, so many people who need it more. We told him he didn't owe us anything, but it would be great if he would want to take some of that money he was planning to give us and use it to help someone that needs it a lot more.

His eyes lit up and he just beamed. The idea of not having to pay us the $850 was just starting to sink in and this idea really resonated with him. He said he'd been wanting to give money to the Gospel Mission for a while, but couldn't figure out how - this is how.

So we spend some time talking over different charitable options: the Gospel Mission, Bibles Unbound, Worldvision, the North Side building project. He left filled with gratitude and hope, telling us he'd pray over the decision and get back with us in a couple days.

We live in such a bubble of prosperity that it's sometimes hard for us to see the options we have for giving that are right under our noses. Our budget is tight, our credit cards maxed out, and the mortgage is due next week. Where is there possibly room for giving?

I want to encourage you to move towards a simple life. What can you do to get by on less? How can you take that next step towards being the others-centered Christ Follower God wants you to be? Where can you find the resources to give?

Maybe you have some old movies, tools, jewelry or musical equipment that you don't need any more - sell them! Maybe you don't really need the Platinum package for your cell phone or cable TV, or you don't need to eat out or go to movies quite as often - cut back!

Or maybe someone will hit your car in the Threads parking lot next week.

The possibilities are endless. We have the resources, we just need to truly embrace what it means to use them to follow Christ. What is your next step?

It's official. The final tally for City Serve we were throwing around in group last week was correct. Our goal was to survey 300 houses - we did 355.

Imagine that. Because we as a community gave up just a small - almost miniscule - portion of our week, we paved the way for hundreds of people to be impacted. As a church community, we gave a small part of ourselves - a part that even felt insignificant to many of us - and were able to lay the groundwork to making a real difference in the lives of hundreds of people.

Feels good to be a part of something bigger than yourself, doesn't it?

So what's next? The biggest reaction we had to the City Serve project last week as a group was, "I wanted to do more." So how do we do that? A couple ideas have been thrown around so far:

1. Free Car Wash - I offered this idea at group last week. Basically we set up a car wash as a way to serve anyone, no matter who they are. The fun part is when they try to offer us money and we just plain refuse.

2. Home Repair - Jennifer brought up something on the website about a family who could use some help with their home.

We're currently looking into both of these options. Once we have some more info, we'll throw the ideas to the group and see what sticks. If you have another idea you'd like to investigate and present to us, by all means please do so!

This is what it means to be the Church. I'm glad I have the opportunity to share it with each one of you.

Are you ready for the City Serve? Lee has cast quite a vision for what it means to follow Jesus in 2007 in Kalamazoo county, and I am excited to see how it develops. This Sunday will be a great start to that and I'm sure we will make a real impact in those few hours, but how much more is there to come?

Constantly throughout His Word to us, God calls us to remember those less fortunate than us - the widow, the orphan, the poor, the forgotten. This is in sharp contrast to what our culture tells us: Look out for #1. He who dies with the most toys wins. How much impact could we have on our city, our county, our state, our country, even our world if we truly lived out what Jesus taught (James 1:22)?

We could...quite literally...change the world.

This Sunday (at 9:30, don't forget!), make sure to take the time to enjoy the feeling of helping others (2 Cor 9:7). This project is meant not only to change the lives of those we're serving, but to change our lives, too. Follow the guidance of the Spirit and watch what happens.

This week at group will be a casual time. We'll simply share a meal together, worship and take time to process the City Serve experience. I'm thankful that I get to share this with all of you.