"If I won the lottery, I could do a lot of good in Jesus' name."
I have heard this kind of sentiment from many believers. It is a faithless statement when you think about it.
What could you do with some large amount of money that you could not do with Christ, some creativity, hard work, sacrifice, Christian fellowship, and faith (Philippians 4:13)?
There are some things that money can do that faith can't, but all of them are pretty scary to me. If you could just throw free money at something without prayer and faith and interdependence, would there be any spiritual benefit? Would God be glorified at all? I don't think this is what Jesus is looking for at all (Matthew 7:21-23), which is why he does not manipulate the lottery so that only Christians win.
I try to encourage people to imagine what they would do with a sudden fortune, then go do it by faith. Of course, I don't quite live up to that ideal, but I'd love to see it actualized.
I came to this conclusion years ago, but I have been confronted with an idea recently that has brought me back to it. This past Sunday I met a man at a church we were visiting. After learning that we had adopted Ramiah, he told me that he and his wife had been talking about doing that "if we ever had the money."
This was not the first time someone said this , but I think I get more puzzled every time I hear it.
Now, I don't want to be the guy who thinks everyone needs to do this thing, because I did it. I know that God called us to this path, and not necessarily everyone else. I hesitate being an outspoken advocate for adoption for that reason.
But this excuse just doesn't make sense to me.
One reason would be the way we experienced God's provision throughout it all. We finished with more in the bank than when we started. We were prepared to be paying off the adoption for years, but everything was pretty much paid before we left. I actually had to instruct people to stop giving.
But even if he didn't provide so quickly and so abundantly, I cannot see finances being that big of a deterrent. I mean, once God convicted us to adopt, we became convinced that our daughter was out there. Money was no obstacle. Imagine that your son or daughter was taken from you and was being kept in some third world orphanage, and it was going to take $100,000 (5 times what our adoption cost) to get your baby back, how long would you pray and consider whether or not you could afford getting your baby back? Not a second.
You see what I'm saying? If you think that God would want you to adopt, then complaints about cost seem at best silly and at worst faithless.
Let me get down from my adoption soap box long enough to ask this: If God had enough money, what would he have you do?
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7 comments:
I don't want to cast the net even wider, but as you have hit upon, it is a matter of faith and not merely finances (as finances are simply symptomatic of the deeper issue). So, when you ask your question, the immediate question in my mind is,
"What would you do if you knew you couldn't lose?"
I constantly see a problem at the church I serve. There is a clashing between generations regarding money. The older generation grew up living by the principle that you don't purchase anything until you have the money in the bank. Our generation buys without thinking putting everything on credit.
There seems to be a happy medium based on seeking God's will and guidance, coming to a consensus (see Regan's previous post), and then having the faith that God's will be done.
Sam,
I don't care where you get the money as long as you pave and expand that parking lot.
To all,
Seriously, church finances are so missed prioritized in many cases that it is not even funny. I don't know if it is really a generational issue as much because each generation seems to be extremely talented at wasting.
I am not one that decides the church will do something if we do not have the money for it. I am usually the stickler in the meeting asking if we have the money for that. I guess I might lack faith in that area, but there are a 1000 things that we could decide to use our money on that would be of benefit and that is just in the small town of Antwerp. Now if there was a cause greater than what the church could currently afford (and I am not implying a building project but that is the only project that usually gets this treatment), then I could see stepping out on faith, stirring up the community, and heading in that direction.
Unfortunately, the church wastes a lot of resources. It usually isn't a question about it needing more funds but about it wasting less.
After thinking about this post a little more, I like the principle but we do have to ground our faith in reality. That sounds like a faith killer, but I do not mean it is as such.
Here are some things I would like to do if I could do anything I felt God wanted and knew I would not fail. I would stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, help all of the hurt people from that war and bring reconciliation, ushering in an era of world peace. I want to feed all of the world's hungry. I would like all of the children in the world to have caring parents. But I can't bring these things about, and God has not brought them about, whether through direct miracles or through the work of some of the superbly faithful Christians who far surpass me.
My approach might be a faith killer. I do not know if it should be categorized as such. But there is some level of realism that should match our calls to faith. But I also do not want faith to be realistic because we do not need faith when things are realistic. Miracles are only needed when reality could not achieve what needs to be done.
I can bring peace to my realm of influence and try to broaden that realm to bring peace other places and teach others to also be examples of peace. I can help feed the hungry as much as possible, but I will not be able to feed all of the world's hungry. I could adopt a child, but right now I do not feel that is my calling. There are so many good things that we can spend our lives working toward. It is a matter of us being sensitive to the leadings of God to know what he wants us specifically to do.
Hopefully, we all serve in ways that God is glorified. And we all can serve a little better, but I do not know if we can do whatever we wish.
Well, pick one thing. Say, feeding the hungry...
Even if you had a billion dollars, you would need some ingenuity to turn that into an ongoing food supply.
So, what if you could come up with that idea (say, providing a cash prize contest for agriculture student who comes up with the best farming idea for Ethiopia, just off the top of my head), could you then persuade rich people to give toward a really great idea? What if you and a small group of believers worked toward something like this for 30 years?
The likelihood that you would feed everyone is still very minuscule, but the chance that you would change the lives of a lot of people skyrockets. Much higher, obviously than if you never tried. And all of this does not eve take into consideration how the hand of God will bless your efforts.
That's a great idea.
Almost sounds like, "Design Like You Give A Damn."
(Open in a new tab/window. Blogger won't let me use a target tag... sorry)
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