Blessings!

Sometimes, when things are really dry -- both physically and spiritually -- it seems as if the dryness will last forever.  We were approaching the end of September with weeks of no substantial rains and the likelihood that the month would go down as the dryest on record with record-breaking temperatures on many days.  However, the last five days of the month took a dramatic turn, dumping inches of rain on thirsty land, flooding creeks and small streams, and bringing down leaves that had dried due to lack of moisture.  Our yard, after absorbing almost seven inches of rain in four days, is now a soggy sponge.  The rain also brought cooler temperatures, and now, rather than being 20 degrees above normal, we are looking at and enjoying (?) below normal temperatures.  The coming days are forecast to provide even cooler temperatures, keeping us about 13 degrees below normal.  What a rollercoaster ride!  From famine to feast in rain, and from too much heat to not enough -- at least in my opinion.  Oddly, the few surviving tomato vines are setting fruit, and if we can keep temperatures in the 70's and 60's for about six weeks, they will ripen.  Oh, to have a late-season garden tomato after so few due to the extreme heat and lack of rain!

God's blessings are freely given, both to believers and unbelievers, and no one should take for granted those blessings.  Even as I basked in the blessing of rain again, my heart was challenged by God in the area of living radically for Him and giving radically to Him.  A friend of mine gave me a copy of "Crazy Love" by Frances Chan, and I've been reading that during my lunch break and being fully convicted by the Holy Spirit that I've been a lukewarm Christian.  It's so easy to slide into lukewarm that most of us probably don't even know we're there and think that we're living an exemplary Christian life.  Wrong!  Please pick up a copy of this book for yourselves and read, and you'll understand why I say that.  And during this past week, God used that book, as well as circumstances in my life and the Word that was spoken from the pulpit on Sunday, to challenge my husband and I to be extravagant givers.  All of us give on a level that does not impact our lifestyles; rarely do any of us give sacrificially -- meaning that our giving causes us to do without, cut back, or postpone a purchase.  No, we all give safely from our abundance.  Yet 52% of the world lives on less than $2 per day, and we here in the United States do not understand that we are extremely rich compared to the rest of the world.  Instead, we compare ourselves to the Joneses, to our neighbors, our extended family, and look at what we DO NOT have rather than what we have.  We hoard stuff that we don't need, eat ourselves into obesity, and charge ourselves into debt living beyond our wealthy means!  All of us are guilty, including me! 

On Sunday, October 3, my husband and I participated in a Walk to Stop Child Trafficking Now (http://www.sctnow.org/) in Raleigh, North Carolina.  There were numerous other walks held in several states across the country.  I had signed on to be a team leader and sadly had only one other lady sign up to walk with my husband and me -- and I had petitioned many friends in our rather large church to join us.  Deeply saddened at the lack of response from our community, both church-going and non-church-attending, my husband and I upped our giving by about 20 times from what we had given at the time I had signed on as a team captain.  We were both convinced that we would please God by giving to help stop the crime of child slavery, and yet we still didn't impact our lifestyle one bit.  Oh, we took a chunk out of our savings -- our security blanket -- but we still have it.  We could have given more! 

After reading Chan's book, I think he's right on -- that we in America have become so accustomed to sitting in the lap of luxury that we don't have a clue what it is to give sacrificially; that we've become complacent and think that we deserve wealth; that we have closed our eyes to the needs of most of the people in this world; and that we'll give as long as it doesn't affect us.  We are all dams of prosperity, holding back and accumulating stuff that we don't need, can't afford, and all too often don't even use -- just because we can.  I'm challenging each and every one of us to pass along our blessings and not hoard them.  Ultimately, we will have to answer to God for how we used the wealth that he has bestowed upon us.  Let's all try to give extravagantly!