When you finally stop caring about the Joneses

I preached on Sunday about "Keeping up with the Joneses". That's what they called it where I come from. You know, when you live your life trying to have and do what others have and do. The Bible calls it coveting. We covet our neighbors possessions, income, house, cars, spouse, kids, success, job. There are a million things to covent, some material, some relational.

It seems as though the material stuff gets in our way the most, though. We live in a world with newer and flashier gadgets than ever before. Advertisers market to our lust for more or our lust for what everyone else has. Just think about the commercial..."If you don't have and iPhone, well, you don't have an iPhone." They're basically saying, "You're not cool like everyone else. You HAVE to get one." We know that's not true, but we struggle with it. Sometimes, I'm not even sure we understand who powerful this influence is to "keep up w/ the Joneses." We buy a house because everyone else says that's the thing to do, when we should be renting an apartment and saving money. We get the latest phone or iPad or laptop. We HAVE to get that flatscreen. We go out to eat and buy designer clothes when we have a full pantry and a full closet...because it just seems like we ought to and that's what everyone does.

The problem that a lot of people don't get about this seductive force is that it handcuffs us from doing what God wants. It inhibits our giving to our local church. It puts a roadblock in front of our ability to help the poor and serve the community and world. It simply thwarts our generosity. We simply can't be generous because our money is tied up in all these things we've convinced ourselves that we need. That's why I was pretty amazed when I read a story about UGA football coach Mark Richt.

Now, if you know me, you know that I'm pretty nuts about Georgia Football. And I love Mark Richt. I really love him when he wins a lot of games. More importantly, I respect him greatly as a man, this story would stick out to me even if he was the coach for one of our rivals. Basically, it was reported that he had his recently built lakehouse up for sale. One website reported that this was a sign that he was preparing to be fired at the end of the season. An ajc beat writer went to Richt to get the real story. His comments were astounding in this day and age:

“Within the last year, I read this book, “The Hole in Our Gospel,”
written by Richard Stearns. He’s the president of World Vision, U.S. I think
people understand who World Vision is but, basically, they help the poor.
Through their organization, you can help children, you can help build wells, you
can buy them donkeys, whatever people need. World Vision helps people across the world. Well, anyway, there was a lot of statistical data in there about the
amount of people that live on a dollar a day around this world. Billions of
people. So I’m reading this book and it really affected me. It helped me realize
that what we have is way more than we need and that our ability to give is
hindered by this property. I guess that’s the best way to tell you. We just
wanted to be in a better position to give and bless people that don’t have
anything. We felt like this was one way to be able to do that.”

Look, you and I probably don't make $3 mil. a year like Mark Richt. Let me rephrase that. I know I don't. You probably don't, either. However, it's pretty common for big-time coaches to have second lake or mountain houses. It's what you do if you make that kind of money. It's amazing to me that Richt has the inner understanding that 'the normal life of a coach' was taking away from his ability to give and bless others. He goes on:

“This book just talks about how much of that is going on around the
world and, if it was sitting right outside our door, what would we do about it?
It’s a very compelling book. Compelling enough for me to say, ‘you know what, I
don’t want to pour money into a home like that when I can use it for better
things, for eternal things.’ It was just very alarming to find out what’s going
on out there and we need to do something about it.”

What is inhibiting you from being generous? From tithing? From blessing others? From doing what God is calling you to do? Some people say that money is personal...and it is. Some people say that God or the church shouldn't be worried about your money. Okay, you can hold that opinion if you want. But the God's will for us and our money is that it would be just another tool through which we live in His will. And the question we have to ask ourselves is this:

Am I as free as Mark Richt when it comes to my money or am I in bondage to my money and possessions?

You can read the whole article here: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/2011/05/25/mark-richt-says-decision-to-sell-lake-hartwell-property-was-christian-motivated/