Squeezing My Camel Through the Needle's Eye

"Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."
-Proverbs 30:8b-9

As I have been processing through a number of things and looking toward the future, I have been thinking a lot about money and possessions and how Christianity should shape our approach to these things. Increasingly, I am being convicted that I am deeply sinful about such matters, and am quite frankly largely unwilling to actually let Scripture speak to the suppositions my culture have left me with.

In meditating on this passage, I have been thinking a great deal on the truth of scripture that it is not good to be rich. That in asking for our "daily bread", we ought not only to mean no less, but also no more. The true testament is that riches, while they may be blessings from God, are also a snare of the devil. I more and more realize that my easy life sounds much like this:

"And as for [the seeds which] fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature."

Think with me on all the things we trust in and take for granted, the things we expect as our due, which are in truth signs of exorbitant wealth. In the West, we believe that it's okay to buy new things just because they're new. We see nothing wrong with buying things like clothes not because our old ones have worn out, but because the new ones are fashionable-or even just fun to buy. It seems perfectly normal for us to go on vacations all over the world, at least once a year, and live there in luxury. The same with the assumption that its natural to remodel our homes or apartments because we're tired of the way they are. Nobody blinks at the thought that its fine to purchase high-definition television, or video game platforms, or $200 cell phones. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is that because we are surrounded by excess and gross affluence, we are unable to see it for what it is. I know this in my own life. Its easy for me to say "I'm not rich-look at that guy over there." But the truth is that we are all incredibly wasteful of what God has given us, and that this makes it extremely hard for us to follow Him.

Just bemoaning the problem is easy for me. But the challenge is actually living it. I'm not proposing that we live in huts in jungles. But what I am seeking to make my aim is something almost as revolutionary. Imagine if we Christians all lived in houses no larger than we needed, drove cars until they broke, and only bought clothes when our old ones were unwearable. If we stopped paying exorbitant amounts of money for cable television, golf course memberships and mp3 players. If we didn't lavish money on landscaping and interior decorating. If the church lived this way-really did it, seeking to have no more than the cultural equivalent of their "daily bread"-the world would be indelibly marked by it. It would rock our society to its very core.

And now my prayer is that I would not only think on this, but do it. That I would stop wasting money on my own entertainment and comfort, and instead use it in the service of the Lord. That these words would haunt me:

"But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs."