He giveth & giveth & giveth & giveth...

There have been some rather trying situations for some my friends at church recently. We had an ad-hoc prayer meeting on Sunday where we used the song 'He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater'

This has been particularly special for me since my mum died of cancer back in 2000. She really struggled with her faith until her last few weeks. This song was used at her funeral and memorial servces but what really struck me then and still does now, even though all the words seem powerful, is the sond verse:

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength is failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father's full giving is only begun.

Whenever I read or sing this I wonder when I'm really going to believe it. I know that it's true in the theological / theoretical sense, but belief that puts it in action is often something quite different.

One of the many conclusions that I've come to recently, due in part to my reading material, is that if we want to see miracles such as healing, miraculous provision and even salvation, then we need to have given everything. It occurs to me that it's only when we know we have nothing left to give and that we can do no more than rely on God for a miracle, that He steps in.

It makes sense I guess. Why should God do the miraculous just to make life easier?

Money & sex

I've been doing more of that uncomfortable reading lately. Not the warm fuzzy 'bless me' material. More the 'ouch that's gonna hurt' type that challenges your whole lifestyle. It started recently with “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claibourne & then I finally got round to reading a book by Jim Wallis called “The Call to Conversion” which asks for a more holistic ideal of conversion (only on 3rd chapter so far). They both do a great job in convincing me that our whole way of selfish so-called freedom is so often at the expense of or possibly just ignorant of the starving & suffering elsewhere. We Christians then make matters worse by failing to recognise this, making religion about experiences and abstract moral rules, but only some areas of morality.

I guess we can't just blame the big corporations or governments. We still buy all the goods we believe we are entitled to with barely a thought to where they come from or what cost they've been to the workers or to the planet or even to our own bank balances or indebtedness to more big corporations.

It's nearly Christmas & I'm as bad as the next man, woman or child at coming up with lame reasons (sorry, excuses) why I must, ought or deserve to have some great gadget. Including the laptop I'm writing on now. We no longer tolerate not getting what we feel we deserve and this train of thought led me to an interesting conclusion which, like many of my 'conclusions' needs to still be thought out a little more.

It seems to me that what we often refer to as the moral decline of the 'world' is really quite closely linked to our excessive, selfish consumerism. If we can turn a blind eye the philosophy that says “we want, we deserve it – to hell with the cost” and ignore the greater costs as well as our own indebtedness, then how on earth can we expect anyone without Christ to say no to anything that they want.

We even find people in the church (although I wonder why that's such a surprise) that also see things this way. The old (but certainly not defunct) ideals of commitment to marriage, sexual morality and honesty can easily go out the window. If we can buy what we like regardless of cost, then why can't we have whatever person we want regardless of cost (to us or others)? So it seems to me that social ethics, sexual morality, honesty and commercial/financial ethics are all linked. Ignoring any of them is sin. If the church looks only at some and neglects the rest then maybe, just maybe the whole thing falls apart anyway.