Monday, February 14, 2011

Spending and Being Spent

In my last post, I mentioned the idea of a "wartime mentality" (that was used to great effect in John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life" and "Desiring God"). I want to explore that idea a bit more for my own benefit - so that I can be thinking and acting in a right - godly - way about money: how I think about it and how I manage it. Since, as a Christian, and stranger in this world, I find myself in the midst of warfare - the Kingdom of Heaven being taken by force - it seems reasonable to my mind, that a wartime mentality should be part and parcel of who I am, the choices I make, the measures I take, to free up the resources God has given me for the futherance of His Kingdom.

When this thinking comes to bear on our finances, many - even in the Church - squirm. Jesus had much to say on the subject: don't worry about it, don't store it up in barns, you can't love it and God at the same time, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and more.

For me, this thinking is (too) slowly transforming my own mindset on all kinds of personal fiscal policies: how much clothing do I need, and does it always need to be new?, can we spend less on groceries, eat better and be healthier, and actually enjoy our food more? (the answer has been a resounding Yes!), can I make do with the old (insert household item) until it actually dies, and even more, do without when it does? do possessions or new things make me happy? (No!), could we get by just fine with a home that is more than half smaller (and therefore less expensive to buy, upkeep, maintain) that what we have now? (I believe, Yes!), do I need any luxuries beyond hearth and home, food and clothing? and a host of other angles, aspects and questions! Here's the thing: Am I storing up treasures on earth, or in heaven? Does my fiscal behaviour honour Jesus, or fly in the face of His clear teaching in Scripture? Is the Church in the west today sitting on the sidelines of the war (not to mention her 'household gods'), enjoying the spoils of economic success when she should be in the thick of the battle, not caring if her coat is tattered and soiled so long as the battle is won?!

Again, I leave you with Dr. John Piper's musings on the subject, from pgs. 199-200 of "Desiring God":

The mention of "war" is not merely rhetorical. What is specifically called for today is a "wartime lifestyle." I used the phrase "simple necessities of life" earlier in this chapter because Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:8, "If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content." But this idea of simplicity can be very misleading. I mean it to refer to a style of life that is unencumbered with nonessentials - and the criterion for "essential" should not be primitive "simplicity", but wartime effectiveness.

Ralph Winter illustrates this idea of a wartime lifestyle:
'The Queen Mary, lying in repose in the harbor at Long Beach, California, is a fascinating museum of the past. Used both as a luxury liner in peacetime and a troop transport during the Second World War, it's present status as a museum the length of three football fields affords a stunning contrast between the lifestyles appropriate in peace and war. On one side of a partition you see the dining room reconstructed to depict the peacetime table setting that was appropriate to the wealthy patrons of high culture for whom a dazzling array of knives and forks and spoons held no mysteries. On the other side of the partition the evidences of wartime austerities are in sharp contrast. One metal tray with indentations replaces fifteen plates and saucers. Bunks, not just double but eight tiers high, explain why the peace-time complement of 3000 gave way to 15,000 on board in wartime. How repugnant to the peacetime masters this transformation must have been! To do it took a national emergency, of course. The survival of a nation depended on it. The essence of the Great Commission today is that the survival of many millions of people depends on its fulfillment. [emphasis mine]

There is a war going on. All talk of a Christian's right to live luxuriantly "as a child of the King" in this atmosphere sounds hollow - especially since the King Himself is stripped for battle [emphasis mine]. It is more helpful to think of a wartime lifestyle than a merely simple lifestyle. Simplicity can be very inwardly directed and may benefit no one else. A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent (2 Corinthians 12:15).

2 Cor. 12:15 - Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth: "I would gladly spend and be spent for your souls." Now that is 'coin' well spent.

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