Credit crunch this… credit crunch that… we’ve still got our game consoles & we’re still getting fat.
I’m fed up of people saying “they’ve no money” (as they walk along the street swaying to their IPODS with fancy phone in pocket) which better translates as “I’ve no money to have a nice meal out every weekend or to buy every gadget, game or garment that I want.”
So what? My greatest fear with the credit crunch is not that I won’t be able to buy Tesco Finest anymore or that new clothes are costing me more money… No, my greatest fear is that I’ll get even stingier with my giving.
The media tells us that we have no money to play with anymore and as we run for the hills, we stop giving to church & overseas charities and who suffers? Those who are truly poor… who have no clean water… who are dying of malnutrition… those who have no money!
You see despite our “awful” new financial circumstances & escalating house prices, we still hold the keys to solving one of the greatest evils in this world… the unjust distribution of materials and stomping on the poor for cheaper jeans.
Yet I still find myself struggling to increase my giving to Tearfund, trying to find evidence that a tithe isn’t a Biblical precedent and blocking out any messages that suggest developing world communities have been ripped off in bringing me a bargain.
Jesus doesn’t mince His words to the CHURCH on this one in Mathew 25. He claims that those “goats” that overlooked the hungry, ignored the thirsty, disregarded the homeless and refused to visit those in prison, will be deprived of the eternal reward given to the “sheep.”
Forget budgeting and tighter pockets, that’s something worth thinking about.
I’m fed up of people saying “they’ve no money” (as they walk along the street swaying to their IPODS with fancy phone in pocket) which better translates as “I’ve no money to have a nice meal out every weekend or to buy every gadget, game or garment that I want.”
So what? My greatest fear with the credit crunch is not that I won’t be able to buy Tesco Finest anymore or that new clothes are costing me more money… No, my greatest fear is that I’ll get even stingier with my giving.
The media tells us that we have no money to play with anymore and as we run for the hills, we stop giving to church & overseas charities and who suffers? Those who are truly poor… who have no clean water… who are dying of malnutrition… those who have no money!
You see despite our “awful” new financial circumstances & escalating house prices, we still hold the keys to solving one of the greatest evils in this world… the unjust distribution of materials and stomping on the poor for cheaper jeans.
Yet I still find myself struggling to increase my giving to Tearfund, trying to find evidence that a tithe isn’t a Biblical precedent and blocking out any messages that suggest developing world communities have been ripped off in bringing me a bargain.
Jesus doesn’t mince His words to the CHURCH on this one in Mathew 25. He claims that those “goats” that overlooked the hungry, ignored the thirsty, disregarded the homeless and refused to visit those in prison, will be deprived of the eternal reward given to the “sheep.”Forget budgeting and tighter pockets, that’s something worth thinking about.
4 comments:
Well said, and very timely.
Welcome to the world of blogging :-)
yeah, good stuff - very true..
Way-hey, Dinger's a blogger! Great post though I am aware also that many people's jobs are on the line because business has gone dead and so a couple of months without a paycheque is no joke especially with a family, mortgage etc. But it makes me mad that the US can find $700 billion to save Wall Street but somehow there isn't £25 billion to save children in the Third World from preventable diseases. Our priorities are all wrong. Check out this link: http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=09&year=2008&base_name=bono_on_the_bailout
I tried to send you a link / comment the other evening, but... So here goes again, Johnny.
First of all a cartoon + comment on my boss Eddie Arthur's Blog... http://www.kouya.net/?p=1243
and then this morning I saw an article in Christianity Today by Charles Colson on the US economy but equally relevant closer to home...
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/octoberweb-only/140-42.0.html
Keep up the good blogging. John
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