Let’s Get the Secret Out!
I’m a little over 1/2 way through…
Endorsements for this book are varied indeed! From Oteil Burbridge (bassist extraordinarie) to Frederick Buechner to Anne Rice. Yeah, there is some good stuff here. I was talking today with a good friend today about money - our lack of it for instance. Actually, what we were talking about was the general focus that people seem to have on money and the things that it can get us. I’ve been thinking a lot about money lately. What I don’t have, what I have etc.ÂÂ
I sat beside a struggling homeless man on the bus a week or so ago and was grieved at his situation. I wanted so badly to “fix” things for him.  I realized immediatley (and uncomfortably) what I had compared to him. We talked all the way into Seattle and I watched, sadly, as he left the bus. I had struggled for words that would be helpful to him. I was perhaps over cautious as to what I said to him, wanting desperately not to say anything “trite” and unhelpful. He was now gone…walking the streets, trying once again for another day, to regain some sense of dignity. He hadn’t even known what day it was!ÂÂ
Mclaren, talks about Jesus and his focus on giving to the poor. He presents it in a very compelling way. Listen to his words:
Perhaps it now becomes clear why giving to the poor begins Jesus’ list of spiritual practices: if we are to experience spiritual transformation so that we can become the kinds of people whose “righteousness” transcends the mere avoidance of doing wrong, mere technical perfection and external conformity-then we must be liberated from enslavement to money.
God help me when I am so worried about what I don’t have. I am not suggesting that is wrong to “have stuff”. Indeed we need things to sustain our lifestyles. But this message of Jesus…to care for the least of these…it’s got a hold on me. How will it change and transform me? Or will I look away…and continue my quest for stuff.ÂÂ
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Lon