Greed, The Thief of Generosity

Last year I was dating someone, and one day when we were at my house he said something about disliking the clutter in my living room.

The funny thing to me was when he talked about clutter he wasn’t talking about the pile of papers sitting on my desk, he was talking about my collection of horse figurines and the pictures on my walls.

But he really got my attention when he told me that he thought I was too attached to my decorative things and that he didn’t think that I wouldn’t be able to sell them.

What he said has really stayed with me. God has been using it powerfully in my life. It has made me start noticing things about myself that I didn’t really like. I started noticing that I have can be materialistic and greedy, that there are times in my life when I think I need more…more yarn, more books, more clothes, more shoes, more bags…more, more, more.

As this year has passed, God has been opening my eyes to other things such as when I want more I give less. The more I have, the more I think I have to have, the less I give to others.

I have started looking around now, and I have begun to notice those who have less than I do. As I notice them, I start looking for what I can do to help them. What can I give up?

In the past year, I have sold a lot of my things…I’m not perfect. I still have a ways to go on cleaning out and paring down to the necessities, but I am getting better.  I also still have moments where I think I need something that I really don’t, but I am learning to ask myself why I want something. I am also learning to look at my things with new eyes…

I have asking myself how I would feel if lost everything…

or if a friend saw something and really liked it would I be able to offer it to them.

Having more is necessarily wrong, but as Christians, we are sojourners. This world is not our home, and when our attachment to things becomes greater than our attachment to God or to others, we need to check ourselves. That is what the past year has taught me.

Book of the Week: More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger

Book of the Week: More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger

 

In the book More or Less, Jeff Shinabarger asks the question, “What is enough?” We as Americans live in a culture of luxury and excess, and Jeff challenges us to look honestly at what we have and who we are and ask ourselves, “What is enough?” Then after we have asked ourselves, “What is enough?” We are challenged to ask ourselves, “What can we do to help others with the excess that we have?” Then we need to go out and use that excess to help others. Jeff Shinabarger takes us through our houses and our lives a chapter at a time. At the end of each chapter, he has a section called “Enough Talk” in which he gives action steps that we take to apply the concepts he is teaching to our lives. He also has sections throughout the book called “Visual Moments” which gives a website address for a video where you can see these principles put into action.

I have found that this book has been really challenging for me to read. It is challenging because I have found myself questioning what is excess in my life and what I can do with what I have to help others, and I haven’t come up with any answers yet. Let’s just say that I’m still working on it. There is a strong part of me that wants to let go of everything, and there is strong part of me that is holding on to what I have out of fear. I have never really thought of myself as materialistic but this book along with some other events in my life has shown me that I can place too much importance on things and not enough on relationships. The one drawback that I have found to the book is that Jeff Shinabarger does not speak about his faith in Christ, but through reading his stories, you can see his faith lived out in action.

For more information on Jeff Shinabarger, his book and his ministries, check out his websites

www.plywoodpeople.com  and moreorlessbook.com

To purchase the book, click on the link for my Amazon store below.

Thank you to David C. Cook Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.