Pass Along Our Plethora

My mom loves to tell stories of the silly and often selfish antics of my youth. Specifically she jokes that before my cousins or my friends would come over to play, I'd run around my room collecting my best and my most prized possessions, and I would rush them to the guest bathroom shower, where they would remain behind the pulled shower curtain, safe and out of sight, until my guests left and the coast was clear. The sight of a little chubby Adam waddling down the hallway, arms loaded down with action figures and bobbleheads, must have been something to see indeed.

I have always been a little particular about my things, I guess. Perhaps its attributed to the fact that I was an only child for the first 9 years of my life and didn't have to share with siblings. Perhaps its simply the inherent nature of us all, sinful people who put our needs and wants ahead of others.

I would like to report that in 37 years I have now outgrown my selfish ways, but I fear I haven't. I don't run around the house hiding things before guests come over any longer, but I'm certainly guilty of hoarding the blessings and abundance I've been given. I have a plethora of things.

I recently read a book by David Platt, called "Radical." The entire book is pretty good, but specifically chapter 6, "How much is enough? American Wealth and a World of Poverty" hit me right in the gut. We've all read the statistics and seen the images of people and places around the world, but somehow in our daily lives the plight and poverty of others doesn't upset us as much as it should. While others are hungry, we overeat. While others live with poverty, we live with a plethora.

Platt points out, that in Proverbs we are warned about God's "judgment and devastation for those who neglect the poor." Yet, we neglect them every day in many ways, don't we? A point that Platt made, has resonated with me since I finished reading the words, "Regardless of what we say or sing or study on Sunday morning, rich people who neglect the poor are not the people of God." Let that sink in for a minute. Stated another way, if I profess to love God but I don't love those that God loves, and if I don't care for those that God cares for, do I truly love God? Am I really a follower of Christ? I can pretend to be a professional skateboarder but when I don't practice or put time in at the park, outside observers have the right to call me a liar.

In Mark 10:17-31, we learn of the "rich man" who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus initially tells the man to keep the commandments, which the man proudly declares he has done "since I was young." Its the next requirement that the man struggles with, that many of us struggle with. Jesus tells him to "go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me." What was the man's response? We read that "the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions." He knew definitively what he had to do, and the man couldn't do it. He couldn't part with his possessions. He loved his plethora. Later in the verse we read that it is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God."

Does that mean that all people of means are destined for hell? No. It means that this particular man valued his possessions more than other people. That his "god" was jewels, not Jesus. As Platt points out in his book, other disciples still had personal possessions and monetary support, so it can't be that simply by having possessions one is cursed. Rather: wanting, longing, and hoarded those possession to the detriment of others, is the issue. That causes me some relief, but Platt poignantly points out a quote by Robert Gundry, "That Jesus did not command all his followers to sell all their possessions, gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom he would issue that command." Yikes!

I need to do better. We need to do better. Others are hungry. Others are in need. Locally: According to a recent United States Census Bureau, 16.2% of Knox County, Tennessee residents live below the poverty line. As horrible as that is, I fear that figure may be low. Globally: According to Unicef, Nigeria is Africa's most populated country with 130 million people. Of those 130 million people, 92.4% live on less than $2 a day. When is the last time you spent less than $2 a day?

We've got to wake up, myself squarely included. We have to see, realize, and truly appreciate all that we have and what others lack. We have to trust Jesus and turn over the blessings He first gave to us. It's time we pass along our plethora.

Much Love, Adam