One woman’s story of giving away everything
Americans have 5% of the
world’s population and generate 25% of its income. The average income is
$43,000. That compares with the poorest 50 nations where average income is
about 75 cents a day. All this money and the stuff it buys is not itself a
problem – it’s the false sense of self-sufficiency that Jesus has an issue with.
Jesus dealt with this problem rather ruthlessly when he said, “Go and sell your
possessions and give to the poor (Matthew 19:21). The bottom line is that
purging is often necessary if he’s going to be our Lord. But what does that
look like in our day and age?
This past week, God asked Kristen McMullen to do this. Here’s her story: “In the last week the concept of “dropping my nets” and
following Him has come up over and over again. Also, selling off my worldly
possessions, so nothing is holding me back. In my quiet time the other day, the
Lord finally said, “Kristen, drop your nets, get rid of your stuff, and let’s
do this thing!”
He helped me make a list of all
of the things I own, down to all my books and drapes, towels, and sheets… and
told me what I’m supposed to do with them.
Everything from selling a few of
the things that I’m meant to finally pay off my credit card with, to selling my
books off for a dollar a piece at my old university with a sign that says, ‘I
was a student once too!’, to the things I’m meant to give away to a shelter for
battered and abused women that this family I’ve ‘seen’ is going to receive. I’m
dumb-struck. And I’m scared and excited all rolled into one.
I returned ‘home’ to Calgary, Alberta
and got rid of all my things. Many of them were sold at ridiculously low prices
to my roomie since she had no furniture. The things I gave away to the shelter
ended up blessing about 4 families in total. All of whom wrote and called in to
the shelter letting them know how badly they had needed these things. Cool,
right?! Almost all of my books sold to about 40 students who couldn’t believe I
was crazy enough to sell some of my enormous texts for $2!
And my burden…I mean ‘load’ was lightened inexplicably. 😉 I can’t even begin
to explain how freed up I felt. How light and airy. Truly how beautiful knowing
I could do anything He asked in that moment because nothing was holding me
back.”
Comments (5)
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I am encouraged by this story and I will also burden my load. Now I am convinced that it is more blessed to give than to recieved.
Thanks guys for such a awsome story.
Macs
I need one more remaining value from you to giveway with reciprocal value from me too, your attenton and mind.
“You Can Do Better than Jesus: The Power of Your Mind”
One remaining value (good)you ought to have in your journey of constructing good life, is your self, and that is, your mind the power of which, you can do far better than Jesus. No event is the “End of History”. For, it is confirmation of failure of imaginative mind and creativity.You can see this in Karl Marx and Francis Fukuyama, the greatest intellectual failures of our times. To them, a human event of communism and capitalism or representaive democracy, respectively closes all doors for further imagination into ideals. But, Alice in the Wonder Land explores new avenues and gains hapiness, so does Mavhiavelli and saves Italy.
Thus, the destiny hapiness in you lies in your mind not a thing nor another soul carrying over to you. You will re-discover your self and see clearly that hapiness originates from you rather than Jesus. Your mind is an asured transcendence beyond individual failure.
“THE MIND AND WEALTH: LOOSE ONE THEN THE OTHER”
Wealth begins and ends with the mind, both go to gether. We begin with acquiring the basic needs that contribute to the construction of good life, namely: Food, Shelter, Clothing and Re-productive Sex. These are followed by security in which we multiply the basics for continuity. From this level, we aspire for political power and finally consolidate all these values with actualization of the self.
The self is acquired through learning processes of tue dreams, imagination and creativity. It is individual re-birth that originates from ones self. It is built upon the following questions:
1. Who am I?
2. What is important to me?
3. Can I love my self with out hating what am not?
4. Can I have true friends without having true enemies? Who are these?
5. Can I give away every thing without reciprocity?
To give away without reciprocity is theft by whoever receives such values. Jesus gave away to create value: he taught legal and acceptable (legitimate)political economy. The idea is to construct a productive harmonious society based on the ethic of give and take from one another things of value. This is the framework of “mind-wealth-logic.”
I am saddened at some of the comments that are posted here which have missed the clear joy of giving to another with no expectation of reciprocity. The insistance of focus on one’s “self” is the very point Jesus was making (that we should humble ourselves away from self love and be more concerned with our fellow brothers and sisters). I will leave all the “mind-wealth-logic” myths to the deep thinkers and just push on with what I know to be the Word of my Saviour, “Love thy neighbour as thy self.”
Pastor Steve Zimmerman