this is a simple kind of life

20 bucks. that's all i spent at the grocery store today (including laundry soap). i have been challenged to spend just $3/day for the next five days on food stuff. with the extra some friends and i hope to make a difference to those who live in the reality of spending much less than $3 a day, every day.

see, more than half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day. and i can't even pretend to be able to fix that situation. i work everyday with people who live without things i have grown to consider as basic. God asked his people this question - "What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?" (Isaiah 3:15) God is always on the side of the oppressed and poor. i would argue that sometimes we are on the team that oppresses because we are so far removed from the poor. i would argue that sometimes we do this without even knowing it. so i guess the real challenge becomes not what i can give up. because later in that same book, God says he doesn't care about what i have given up - He insists that I "loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke" (Isaiah 58:6) now that's a challenge!

if you don't know someone that fits into the category of the oppressed or poor, i challenge you to find someone. not so that you could pity them or have a charity project. i think perhaps you need to do this so that you could get free from your stuff. i think perhaps you need to do this so you can see how God provides in unimaginable ways. i think you ought to do this so that you never get into a situation where you might be tempted to become the oppressor.

all this stuff is just for a moment. it will vanish like this earth and the sea. and to borrow a lyric from john mayer (or perhaps he borrowed it from someone else) we are too often slow dancing in a burning room. and seriously - we don't have time for that.

so get creative - use your time, use your money, live a life of freedom so others might be freed. "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39)