About My Father’s Business, Day 127

In our meeting yesterday for the upcoming Guatemala trip I ended up spewing this passionate speech about inadvertently stealing from the underprivileged while we hoard and spend and take full advantage of all that the Lord has poured out upon us. Everyone was just staring at me with blank expressions on their faces. After I was done bombarding them a team member quizzically chimed in, “so, you’re saying… that by having nice things and spending our own money… we’re stealing from the poor?” (I used quotations but those weren’t her exact words, just something like it) She seemed almost shocked.

I was thinking about my passionate rant while I was at work today. I’m still attempting to “Dave Ramsey” my way right through this week. I have $10 left in our food envelope until Thursday and there is virtually no food in this house. There isn’t any spending money for anything else. I was debating using some of our food cash to get something from Starbucks. All I had for breakfast was popcorn. I was asking myself if it was really a sin to buy chai. Then I was thinking, would I like to stay in debt just a little bit longer and have tea, or get out of debt a little bit sooner sans the tea? Consecutively I wondered if buying tea would constitute robbing the poor. Then my head started to hurt.

I’m practically a professional at over analyzing a matter. The simple conclusion that’s evolved from the mind numbing over analysis I embarked upon this day is that all things belong to God. We’ve been instructed by Jesus Christ to be His hands and feet here on this earth. If God places ANYTHING into your life, into your hands, or beneath your feet… I guess the simple question is (wow this is lame, but I’m gonna do it) what would Jesus do?

It’s not necessarily bad to buy tea. Tea could be a blessing from God, certainly. BUT if you know, if you feel deep down in your heart that you shouldn’t be spending the money that the Lord has placed into your hands on tea, then it is a sin AND you are stealing from someone or something. If that particular money wasn’t designated by God for tea, then it was designated by God for something else.

I guess even though I’m very much an independent adult I still have a Father to answer to. What I have doesn’t really belong to me. It belongs to Him. I need to be responsible with my Fathers belongings. I need to be about my Father’s business. To only be thinking about me all of the time; to spend all of MY money on what I want; to turn a deaf ear to the One in charge of the budget; well that’s just foolishness.

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.
Ps. 50:23