Ten Dollars

Last Sunday we began a four week mini-series on the things Jesus said about wealth. During the service we watched a video called “God Pie” and I delivered a sermon from Matthew 6 entitled, “God wants His piece of the Pie - Our Treasure follows our heart”. If you were in the service or happen to listen to it you will notice that we did something unique…..we took up two offerings. However in the first offering, the baskets were full of $10 bills and I asked everyone to take $10.

As you can imagine, there was a catch, you couldn’t spend it on just yourself. You had to use it to build a relationship….the rest was up to each individuals imagination.

Well, I spent my $10 on Tuesday. Late in the afternoon I started walking around downtown waiting for someone to ask me for money and couldn’t find anyone. I did get to spend some time with a few people waiting for the bus, but knew I wouldn’t really have time to sit down for a cup of coffee so I decided to let the money continue to burn a hole in my pocket. I ended up at YJ’s coffee shop and soon found out that it was the starting point for the Mardi Gras parade downtown.

I spotted three guys who were unique to say the least. Within a few minutes we struck up a conversation. One of the guys had a dog, and so when he (not the dog, the guy) bent over and started drinking from his dog bowl, I figured it may be a good time to offer to buy them all a drink. Two of the three took me up on the offer and so I threw in some other goodies (not to be legalistic, but I had to spend my $10).

It felt so good to buy for those guys. They were honestly surprised that I would offer it to them. I never did finish counting the number of piercings they all had, it appeared that they had not bathed or changed clothes in weeks. They could see that I really didn’t fit in and asked me what I was doing there….I told them I was a pastor of a church just a few blocks away and that I enjoy coming to YJ’s on occasion because it help me to feel out of place. I told them I didn’t want to just be around people like myself. They really liked that and quickly began to open up. I found out that they are a part of a bookstore that specializes in radical politics. They are strong believers in community with no hierarchy and mutual service to the whole.

It was pretty awesome that after an hour of great conversation, there were really a lot of similarities between what they wanted out of life and New Life….which brings me back to my mini-series of finances. These guys were reacting to the lavish, comfortable lives we pursue….they wanted something more meaningful. Two of the guys had pretty noticeable holes in their shoes, and I pointed out that they could probably get another pair for the price of the coffee they were drinking. And that opened up a discussion about how he was trying to get his feet so calloused that he would not need shoes this summer. I certainly received a valuable education for my $10 and hopefully was able to bless those guys as well. I have promised that I will go find them at their bookstore and continue our conversation.

As I reflect on the week, I am more grateful for so many blessings I experience. My cell phone was acting up a little yesterday and I was tempted to get frustrated, but honestly I remember when I was younger and we had a rotary phone and we had to stand next to it and dial….I always hated the numbers with 9’s and 0’s. Monday, I ran into a few problems changing the oil in my van and got frustrated, however, at least I have a van (90% of the world’s population does not own a vehicle). Earlier this morning the baby grunted her way to a full diaper and just as I was about to think a complaint, I realized that at least I have disposable diapers (I meant Paiton, not me :))…when I was a baby, my mom washed them out by hand—WOW!

Maybe you could take just a minute to reflect on some of the things you take for granted and even cause you frustration and thank God for his multiple provisions. Hopefully you will be able to join in the service this week—I can’t promise $10 for everyone, however there may be a few surprises. I am confident that we will all be challenged from the words of Jesus in Luke 12:13-34. He makes the point that you can have a lot of money and still be poor. The great news is that we can all be rich in the value system of the Kingdom.