Storing like a Woodpecker in Memorial

We have a bird feeder in our back yard. I noticed recently that different birds treat their material possessions differently. The Sparrows tend to show up when they are hungry, slim and quick, they visit a couple of times per day and get only enough to make it until the next meal. Mourning Doves stick around most of the day. They eat until they are bloated, fat and can barely fly. I guess this is what makes them a great source of easy protein for cats and hunters. The foolish gluttons fatten themselves up for their eventual demise.

The Woodpecker is perhaps the most appropriate bird for my neighborhood however. They store-it-up. Our Woodpecker spends hours, going tirelessly from the bird feeder to the closest tree. He picks up a seed and drives it deep into the oak. He is foolishly unaware however, that a few hours later our wily Squirrels come and steal his stored-up possessions. Every day it's the same routine. The Woodpecker stores and the Squirrels steal.

I'm watching this scene and reading Luke 12:14-34. A man comes to Jesus and asks him to tell his brother to equally divide their inheritance. In that day, when a father died, it was up to the oldest brother to administer the remaining assets. In this case, it didn't seem like an unfair request that the assets should be divided. But Jesus detects the idolatry and tells a story. There was a rich land owner who decided he needed more storage for his grain and crops, so he tears down the old barns to build bigger ones. The land owner's plan seems prudent. He is prosperous and needs plenty of assets to assure a secure future. "...Then I'll say to myself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." But there is a problem. That night the man's life is taken. God calls him a fool, for storing up things for himself without being inclined toward God. It seems that the store-it-up strategy is not so prudent after all.

Jesus goes on in this passage to encourage us to act like the Sparrows. Not to worry about the future, but trust God to meet our daily needs. He encourages us to take the extra from our crops, and rather than storing-it-up, to give them to the poor. In this way, we will help our hearts to treasure the things that are really most valuable. It turns out that "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

As it turns out, I am meeting with a financial advisor today. I may take that Woodpecker along and introduce him to the Sparrow.

We Are: A Confession of sorts

As a community we’ve started a discussion on who God has made us to be. A vision for a preferred future. It’s been a excellent series thus far, arousing introspective questions about life, who I am and what the future may hold. Thoughts on how all of these moments that make up this life cohesively form together to bring glory to God. In this discussion, I’ve realized that it’s my tendency to try to find definition, not by asking who by God’s will I am, but by trying to find definition in who I am not. By judging others.

I believe that in these moments in defining who I am by proclaiming who or what I am not, they are moments of self-righteous judgement aiming at someone else’s flaws or hypocrisies. We proclaim “I’m not like them!” or “What a hypocrite!” and allow bitterness into our hearts.

Ironically, where I am quick to disdain someone and their hypocrisy, I myself am a hypocrite.

Onto the confession.

Over a year ago, or so, I bought a 2003 Toyota Tundra for the simple economical reason of trying to impress a young lady. I traded a preferred future for my current image. After the truck, it was a television, clothing, extravagant spending, a gaming console, a very nice but pricy apartment close to work “to save on gas”. The list goes on. The lifestyle - out of control.

My preferred future became a very non-preferred future.

And the Truck wasn’t worth it.

Some FOMers are aware that I was in an automobile accident this past January, where my truck was totaled, due to a driver running a red light. The driver was uninsured, what many don’t know is neither was I. Simply put, I was irresponsible and the previous policy I was covered under had lapsed and was no longer valid.

A good friend expressed their disbelief in me driving uninsured and asked how and why I could allow this to happen. At the time I don’t think I really had a good answer.

I think I do now.

There was a time when maintaining my image was more important then maintaining my responsibilities. Image management was my hypocrisy. It has been a place, a big place, where my life has not acted out on what I believe. It is not a part of who I am.

So what does hypocrisy, being judgmental, one person’s irresponsibility, a truck and trying to keep up with the Jonse’s have to do with finding this life that God has for me? This idea of who We Are?

Well, I think that in someway, it has to do with confession. Many times we confess out of guilt, obligation, arrogance, or lack of control, and because we confess for those reasons we miss out on confessing in a very true, pure, authentic way that owns up to who we may be, and is a part of a struggle to become who we are. I think that when we’re judging others and are trying defining ourselves by “who we are not”, that not only are we effecting our preferred future, we’re harming the present as well.

Early Retirement

A great thing about allowing God to overflow into every area of your life is when those things overlap. Recently in the FOM's Total Money Makeover Group we where discussing saving for retirement, and today I was reading(catching up) in my OYB reading, and an awesome thing happens, Jesus talks about retirement.

What He says reminded me of our group discussion and something John Piper said at an event in 2003, and it made me seriously think about retiring early.

Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?” 15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

16 Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops. 17 He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods. 19 And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’

21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Luke 12.14-21

I tell you what a tragedy is. I’ll read to you from Reader’s Digest (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: “Bob and Penny… took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” The American Dream: come to the end of your life - your one and only life - and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator, be “I collected shells. See my shells.” THAT is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don’t buy it.

- John Piper, One Day 2003

I think what is amazing is that in discussing retirement at group was awesome, because we discussed retirement as being different for followers of Christ, actually how its about more than retirement, but about how to live life. It's not just spinning it a different way, coming up with the hip, post-modern, anti-established, trendy-Jesus, view of retirement either. Its about working towards a freedom to be able to operate at my fullest capacity in God's mission to reconcile a broken and lost world to Him. Maybe I caught the Ecclesiastes bug from a poetic sunday morning rant, or maybe I'm young and can think this way, but you know it really has to stink to be the guy in the story Jesus told. He was rich and rich for a reason. He worked hard, had his emergency fund, drove a used cart and horse - paid off of course, did his debt snowball, and at the end of it all, he died. Just like we all will, and maybe, just maybe by Gods grace He'll help me on this journey to freedom. Maybe just maybe he'll rescue me from my prison of net worth . And maybe just maybe, if I'm really really lucky, by His grace, I'll be able to retire early.