Aug 12, 2009
Pathways to Poverty...And Coffee!
This morning I was sitting in my truck outside a Starbucks. I watched people, one by one, walking in to buy cups of coffee on their way to work. This particular Starbucks is one of the few in our area (without a drive through) that has survived the economic recession. As I sat there I heard one young mom tell another woman that she "just had to stop by and get her Starbucks fix."
I started thinking about the younger generations (and I include everyone from their mid-forties down here) in America and how our lives are characterized by pathways to poverty. Let me explain. We feel the need to buy a cup of coffee (even in economic times like these) at a place like Starbucks and pay $3-5 for what would cost us .30 cents at home. And we don't just buy high-priced coffee once in awhile...we'll do it 2, 3, and maybe even 4 or 5 times a week. Our parents & grandparents who love coffee have spent years drinking coffee they made at home (including the sugar, cream, and flavoring that some like) for a tiny fraction of what younger generations are blowing at high-priced coffee houses. And what did they lose? Now...I buy things from time to time that I don't need. We all do. But what I'm talking about are the "habits" that seem to create pathways to poverty. We buy vehicles we can't afford because we're trying to "look" a certain way. We buy house we can't afford. We buy designer clothes we can't afford. We want to acquire in 3 years what took our parents 30 to get. For some reason, we feel entitled.
You're probably thinking what's the point? Why the the spending rant Jeffreys? Here's why. The same habits that create pathways to economic poverty, I believe also create pathways to spiritual poverty. The habits of instant gratification, chronic hurry, and obsession with image instead of reality keep us from living in a way that allows the LIFE that God offers to flow through us. Jesus once asked a startling question. He asked "what it profits a person to gain the whole world, and lose his or her soul?" The point Jesus was making is that there's a reality beyond just what we see. There's more to the life we know than just the accumulation of material & financial things. The life of meaning, peace, abundant joy, rest, significance, and fullness that we crave as human beings comes only to those who are willing to slow down, create room for God to work in our lives, and trust Jesus to do what he promised he would.
Comments
Shirley Jeffreys on Sep 3, 2009 6:39pm
I like the correlation. It is so true! Thanks for seeing things in our secular life that correlate exactly to our spiritual life.
Jen Haugh on Sep 9, 2009 4:51pm
loved reading a bit from the mind of Matt- thanks for sharing...