We wrapped up the series “Fringe Benefits” at The Journey this past weekend with a closing message about the real reason God calls us to live generous lives:
We’re not slaves anymore. We’re free.
Have you seen the show “Hoarders?” According to the producers, there are 3 million compulsive hoarders among us. I think there are actually a lot more.
Most of us don’t have a thousand cardboard boxes stashed around our house or 113 Star Wars action figures. But we do our own fair share of hoarding.
We hoard our time, frittering it away on ultimately worthless stuff like checking our email for the hundredth time, reading the status updates of people we don’t know (or like), or watching TV until our eyes glaze over – rather than engaging in real-time relationships that would help the people we’re called to care about.
We hoard our money, stockpiling or spending it with abandon depending on our personality, making sure that whichever the case it all adds up to selfish benefit – rather than giving it away after our own needs are met to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and move the mission of God forward in the world.
And we hoard our talents and gifts, living well below the water line of our potential – rather than developing ourselves for the glory of God and the sake of our community.
We do all of this because we’re still slaves in our own minds.
A Journeyer sent me a note that strikingly illustrates this:
I've worked with… kids from foster care [and] a common behavior of children who've been through abuse is hoarding, often of food. It's a means of control. When they're not sure if they're safe, they know food is their constant. So they will ask again and again for food, insisting they are hungry, starving, even after they've just eaten.
When… trying to help them build relationships with other children and adults they can trust… it's very important to not give them what they hoard. [That] only binds them to the behavior, leading them to [it] for comfort and stability. So to help them learn to love I can’t give them what they're asking for. Eventually instead of seeking food the child learns to come to me for comfort, for love, for care... then I can give the extra cookie I wanted to all along. And it's such an overwhelming delight when that cookie just sits on the table forgotten because that child would rather play with me...
It just struck me… how that is just how our God loves us. We come to him crying for more and more of what we really don’t need, and hoard what we're given because we're abused, and trapped in our instability.
That’s why the call to help instead of horde is so important. It helps us realize that Christ has made us free.
If you’re holding and hoarding, you’re returning to slavery. If you’re helping, you’re expressing freedom.
Which will it be?