Dessus

Éducation pour $50

Écrit par Mark Van Steenwyk : 21 décembre 2004

Ce sera mon dernier poteau pendant environ une semaine. Mon épouse (Amy) et sont sortir de la ville pendant quelques jours pour célébrer Noël avec ses parents. Depuis lui mon dernier poteau pour tandis que, je veux lui réaliser le comptage… ici va…

Souvent, quand je parle à quelqu'un au sujet du matérialisme ou du consommationisme ou pourquoi notre célébration actuelle de Noël doit changer, j'obtiens une sorte de regard fixe frustré et confus dans la réponse. Les gens « ne l'obtiennent pas ». Ils pensent que je suis naïf ou extrême. Je vous assure que, je ne suis pas un certain chiot idéaliste courageux qui aime faire rage contre la machine. Je suis un potelé, divertissement-intoxiqué, l'Américain qui désire profondément devenir plutôt Jésus le Christ.

Il y a une semaine, mon épouse et moi parlaient de comment nous devons faire Noël cette année. Nous avons convenu qu'il serait trop brusque et maladroit pour ne pas acheter juste des présents pour des personnes. Au lieu de cela, nous essayons de limiter notre dépense et de commencer à préparer des personnes pour Noël de non-consumerist l'année prochaine. Mais j'ai estimé que ce n'était pas assez-nous doit faire plus. Ainsi, bien que nous ne puissions pas nous permettre le, nous avons décidé que pour chaque dollar que nous dépensons en présents, nous donnerions aux pauvres globaux. Pas beaucoup, mais un bon début.

Je suis allé au site Web de vision du monde (qui est une organisation fortement honorable). Ils ont a catalogue de donation sur leur emplacement. Le catalogue en ligne présente certains des meilleurs arguments pour pourquoi nous devons reconsidérer notre rapport avec de l'argent.

Nous prenons notre argent pour accordé. We spend thousands of dollars a year on entertainment, travel, recreational eating, and technological gagetry. And when someone comes along and challenges us to give more to the poor or to spend less money on ourselves, we get upset. Part of us feels guilty, the other feels angry. We want to say "bless you for challenging me in this area" while at the same time shouting "damn you for making me feel bad." But the simple reality seen on World Vision’s Catalog leaves us without a defense.

For $75–what many people pay for a week’s worth of groceries–you can buy a family a goat, which can provide them with a good supply of milk, or more goats.

For $50–what you might expect to pay for a text book or a handful of mainstream books at Barnes and Noble–you can send a child to school for a year.

For $1850–what you might pay for new laptop–you can provide drinking water by paying for a shallow well.

For $25–the price I pay for a new pair of jeans–you can buy clothing for 5 homeless American kids.

You get the picture. I don’t want you to feel bad. I want you to give. Start giving out of what you can give, even if it is a pathetic amount…and start giving more and more as you re-orient yourlife to maximize the amount of love you share, rather than the amount of fun you can experience. Merry Christmas.

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Comments

4 Responses to “Education for $50”

  1. ToddH on December 22nd, 2004 4:29 pm

    Mark - Thank you for sharing that. I think it is a great challenge and a great place to start. It certainly makes me think. God bless, and merry Christmas.

  2. jeremy on December 28th, 2004 10:57 am

    Mark-

    My wife and I decided several years ago to make (rather than purchase) the majority of our Christmas gifts. Each year we have tackled another handicraft from paper-making to knitting to mosaics. This years was pottery. We like this for several reasons: 1)we spend much less money than we would buying gifts, 2)we learn a skill, 3) we work on them togither, 3) because it is so time consuming, we are limited to giving people one gift, 4) we never set foot in a mall, but rather invest our Christmas $ in things that we want to support, e.g., this year all our $ was invested in a local Christian-run, inner-city art studio where we took our pottery class.

    Our families continue to buy us gifts, but no one has ever expressed offense or disappointment at our modus operandi.

    We also support World Vision and receive the catalogue you mention here. We have considered buying things from this catalogue “in the name of” folks as a gift to them, but think this might come off as pretentious or self-righteous. What do you think?

    Jeremy

  3. Brett on December 29th, 2004 1:06 pm

    I don’t feel bad. I think your challenge is a good one. We all need to be challenged to examine our lives to make sure we are being faithful to God’s commands. I think that we need to be careful though that we don’t replace spiritual motives with political ones.

  4. Van S on December 30th, 2004 2:46 am

    Fair enough, Brett. You seem to be working with the assumption that I have a polical axe to grind. I do not. I am not involved in politics. I am not a liberal. In fact, up until I started abstaining from voting, I mostly voted republican.

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