I'm one of the people who received their copy of Jen Hatmaker's 7 free from the Bloom Book Club. I genuinely couldn't afford to spend money on the book. My husband left his job with the hopes of starting a new business and finding a less stressful job in the meantime. It's been about six months and the business is still getting off the ground and that job he hoped to find to get us through this entrepreneurial season has been illusive.
Our income has been cut in half and I work for a non-profit so you do the math. Even with all the cutbacks we've made we still bring in less than what is needed to cover our essential bills. Over the past several months this series of events has lead me to think of our family in an ugly light. As poor. My thought process has gone something like this: "We can't pay our bills; we must be poor. We can't go out to eat or say yes to every invitation for coffee; we must be poor. We can't buy whatever we want, whenever we want it; we must be poor."
A few weeks ago in staff prayer time one of my co-workers reminded us that as Americans no matter how bleak our financial situation we will always be rich compared to the world's poor. Jen echoes his sentiment:
"The day I am unaware of my privileges and unmoved by my greed is the day something has to change."
It is true. I have never gone without food and I probably never will. I have a cell phone and a nice home stocked with almost everything I could ever need.I don't have all the clothes I want but I have more than enough to meet my needs.
As an American, by definition, you are probably in a similar boat. Sure we have truly poor people in America but they are rarities and oftentimes blessed compared to the world's poor. We are rich. Let us not take God's many blessings for granted by holding ourselves against some standard of the American dream. Instead let us live as blessed people who are thankful because they've been made rich by being adopted into the family of God. In Him we have everything we will ever need.
This post resonated with me... I'm out of work due to chronic illness, and hubby is a full-time grad student. He works a few jobs trying to piece together an income, but there's a lot of months we fall short. And before I read 7, I thought a lot about how "poor" we were compared to our friends.
ReplyDeleteNow I can't believe how full my life is! How much we have, next to those poorest of countries who can barely afford rice and clean water! Yes, even how much excess we have, even though we live at the US poverty level.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I offered my opinion of the book here: http://www.dogfuranddandelions.com/2012/09/book-review-7-an-experimental-mutiny-against-excess/
Thanks for stopping by, Elizabeth. I appreciate your willingness to share your story. It has clearly been good for both of us to get a fresh perspective on how blessed we are.
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