Scroogenomics

For the discussion question this week I asked you guys on facebook to tell me about a great gift that you had received, and what made it a great gift.

I really appreciated the responses. It’s fun to share those stories because there is something special about receiving a gift from someone. God created a physical world for us to live in where we can give a hug, or share a doughnut, or sit a table and drink coffee with a friend. And it is a part of our culture to take special time to show our care for family and friends during the holidays.

Digging In:

Once upon a time I stumbled on a book called Scroogenomics at Barnes and Noble. And I thought it was really interesting. Basically, this economics professor was teaching, in a funny way, how little value some of the gifts we receive have to us.

What makes a poor gift?

Scroogenomics describes this poor gifting by describing value destruction. He tries to make it clear that we give gifts that are worth less than what we paid for them, or are even worthless to the recipients:

“the aisles are blocked not just with panicked shoppers, but also with tables covered with ‘gift items’. In the aisle near the men’s clothing department you’ll find lots of golf-themed knickknacks—mugs festooned with golf balls, golf club mittens, etc. Would anyone buy this stuff for him-or-herself? Does anybody want it?”

I struggled to buy gifts for my father-in-law for years. We do not have the same tastes, and anything he needs, he can purchase for himself. So I have stood next to the golf-knicknack , and the packers knickknack table, wondering if I should pick something like this up, but after reading Scroogenomics, I instead bought him a box of high quality golf balls instead, not having golfed since I was 16 years old, and hoped that it was a practical gift.

No one wants to give or receive a gift that is worthless. So what can we do? 

What makes a great gift?

We can give someone permission to have something that they haven’t been able to afford. (Buying a gift card for someone for something that we know that they really want would be an example of this. Jerry’s parents giving him an iPhone in response to his patience and responsibility is another example.

We can give someone access to something that they didn’t even know existed. By doing research, or by sharing our expertise in an area, or by scouring the shelves of a thrift store, we can discover something and give it as a gift that our loved ones didn’t even know existed. Ally’s cat that doesn’t give mom an allergic reaction would be an example of this.

We can make sure that our gift “functions as a conduit of warm feelings between the giver and the receiver.” An example of this would be writing a really nice card along with the starbucks gifts card. Or even making a bracelet and writing a note.

This is the way that Scroogenomics teaches us to give gifts. In this way we could give someone a gift that is priceless instead of worthless. The teacher who taught me to play a strategy board game when I didn’t even know those existed, gave me a priceless gift that has brought me countless hours of enjoyment. The note that my mother-in-law wrote to send with my birthday card was worth at least as much as the $40 of cash inside.

What about God? What does God have to say about giving gifts?

The main thing that I think God has to teach us about gift giving is found in this section of Scripture:

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

-Luke 6:32-26

This teaches us what true, Christian, charitable giving is. It is only a gift, if it is given freely. As Christians, we can do well to put these words of Jesus into practice.

It can be hard to give and to receive without repayment. But I believe it is worth fighting to keep a gift a gift. Let us make it clear to the world that Christians do not give as the world gives. If someone gives you a gift and you were not expecting it, do not apologize. Say thank you. It was a gift.

If you give a gift and do not want to be repaid, then make that clear. “I just wanted to give you this. No need to give a gift in return.”

Even more difficult is to teach ourselves to give with the right attitude. Remember that you have been given the world. And it is the least we can do to give good gifts to those people in our lives.

Give one good gift to someone this year that is not expecting a gift from you, and you can show them a sliver of the kind of undeserved love that God has shown us.

Reflection:

Who is the difficult person on your Christmas list? What makes it hard to find something for that person?

Christmas Cliffhanger

On the Junior Staff Facebook page, I asked the question, should we celebrate Christmas every year? Why or Why not?

I enjoyed hearing about how important it is to celebrate the birth of Christ, and also the contrasting point that the holiday of Christmas has become something much more inflated with other ideas, and meanings, and materialism.

This week I wanted to share an excerpt from a great book, that I think helps us to remember what needs to happen in our hearts and minds in order for us to prepare for the arrival of Christ,

Digging In:

Well, the problem I see is this: we celebrate Christmas with such enthusiasm, both in Christian ways, and secular ways. And we push so hard to create a certain magic with the season. But after a dozen or more Christmases go by, there is a temptation to ignore the spiritual implications of Christmas, because they have not changed. You and I are just as saved by the work that Christ did when he came to earth at Christmas and gave his life on the Cross, as we were last year, or as your parents were when they were children, or as anyone has been in history.

There is a danger to our faith, when we act in the confidence that the story is written. 

One danger is that we are not involved at all in the work of Christ in this world because we are so content with our own place in heaven. 

Another danger is that we are so accustomed to being saved, that we don't celebrate that precious gift that we have unwrapped each Christmas for as long as we can remember. We are more concerned with what is new, and upcoming here in this world.

I'm going to share a couple paragraphs from the book Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

He proposes what I think is a good solution to this problem:

  

As Christians, we must have hope for all souls. And it is quite realistic to imagine that any man may be saved. "It is sensible [to think this way], but it is not specially favorable to activity or progress. Our society ought rather to insist on the danger of everybody, on the fact that every man is hanging by a thread or clinging to a precipice."

"But to a Christian existence is a STORY, which may end up in any way. In a thrilling novel (that purely Christian product) the hero is not eaten by cannibals; but it is essential to the existence of the thrill that he MIGHT be eaten by cannibals. The hero must (so to speak) be an eatable hero. So Christian morals have always said to the man, not that he would lose his soul, but that he must take care that he didn’t. In Christian morals, in short, it is wicked to call a man “damned”: but it is strictly religious and philosophic to call him damnable."

"All Christianity concentrates on the man at the cross-roads.... The true philosophy is concerned with the instant. Will a man take this road or that?—that is the only thing to think about, if you enjoy thinking."

I think that it is an important idea to remember how dire our situation is. This picture of being threatened by cannibals, or hanging from a cliff is a very serious one. 

It is difficult to imagine watching the scene in the Return of the King where Frodo is hanging on the cliff, and Sam is reaching down, without caring about whether he accepts the help, or chooses to let go and fall.

It is hard to watch this scene without a tear:

Mufasa asks his brother for help. And Scar throws him to his death.

When we consider our fellow humans during the Advent season, and when we consider our own state, it is imperative that we keep ourselves aware of how much we needed Christ to come, and we want to hold onto a mindset that longs for Christ’s coming.

So we are hanging from a cliff, and what happens at Christmas is that God lowers his hand to pull us up.... In the last chapter of the Bible, we hear Christ say, "I am coming soon." and our response is "Come, Lord Jesus!"

Reflecting:

Think of a way that you can celebrate Christmas this year that takes you to the cliff, and lets you consider how great it is to have the hand of God reach down from there.

Share your best ideas here, so we can learn from you.

Reading Classics: The Little Prince

I'm not sure how many of you took me up on the goal of reading the first two chapters of the little prince. (You can find the story here)

The truth is, you can learn from this blogpost without reading the story.

I personally have such a love for the tone of the story, that I would have a hard time putting it down. The story is quick and unique and funny enough that I just keep turning pages. Many of the friends that I have shared this book with in the past will tell me that they don't read books, but that they did read and enjoy this book.

Digging in:

Let's assume that you only read the first two chapters, and try to learn something from the story of the main character (the aviator) as he draws a few pictures. 

When he is a boy, he draws this picture, which the "grown-ups think is a hat.
Because the grown-up have no imagination, he has to draw this second one:

And I've always like drawing number one more, because I prefer use my imagination.

But what I really enjoy is the picture that the aviator draws for the little prince, when none of his drawings of a sheep please the prince. "Your sheep is inside." he says. and the little prince responds "That is exactly the way that I wanted it."

The thing that I think we can learn from the little prince is how to have a childlike faith. He takes things as they are presented to him. For us, as Christians, there are times when we want to take God's Word at face value when he hands us a box and tells us what is inside.

In a world of sinners, this attitude can get you into trouble, and it does cause problems for the little prince. If his friend the rose complains about something, he believes that the rose is telling the truth, and doesn't even consider that the rose may be being melodramatic in order to get attention.

But in regards to our relationship to God, we truly can trust him with hope and inoccence like the little prince.

When God describes heaven for me, he tells me what it will feel like. He tells me that we will not be sick or hungry. He compares it to some wonderful things like a wedding banquet and living in a grand home. He does not describe what it will look like. He does not describe our daily schedule or even tell us if there will be days.

He tells me that we will be with him. He tells us that our reward will be great, and that there is no way that a thief can steal the treasure from us. 

But God really does give us a box when we ask for a sheep sometimes. in Matthew 7 Jesus tells the people, and us, that we can ask him for anything. and that we can trust him to care for us well.

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

-Matthew 7:7-11

So we believe him, and rejoice that the gift of heaven will be exactly the way it should be. And when we are curious about something we can ask him. When we are in need of something, we go to him for help. Because he certainly wants to care for us.

Reflecting:

So, what other things does God ask you to accept as the sheep in a box? Are there things that you wish you knew the ins and the outs of, but God tells you simply to trust him with the faith like the little prince?

Reading Classics: The Light Princess

First of all, I’m just wondering if any of you laughed out loud at this story.

I’ve read it before, but every time, I find myself chuckling even just during the first chapter at the king. "So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it."

I love how light and funny the tone of the opening is. What made you laugh during this story?

  

Digging in:

The princess is light, because she has no gravity holding her down. At first it is funny. The idea of a floating baby being used as the ball in the kids games is a fun one.

And her personality matches the lightness that her body possesses. At first her laughing and pleasantness was a blessing. Especially to the strangers. But as she grew up, her lightness became a problem because she didn't understand the 'gravity' of certain situations. And even her laughter apparently did not contain the type of depth that is necessary.

One moral to the story, seems to be that it is more of a problem never to take anything seriously than it is to have no gravity.

George MacDonald, and C.S. Lewis both taught me be skeptical of a search for happiness as the goal of life.

 “What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” 

—C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity

In our world, people celebrate happiness, and even "love" but it seems that the love that they speak of is something shallow and light in the way that the princess is light.

Sometimes people try to take faith and put it in that same sort of box. They act as though we can just have a free-spirited light confidence in "things will all work out in the end."

But without first realizing the gravity of our situation, how could we then see the need for a savior?

And why would that savior have to suffer? If all of our wrongdoing and selfishness were merely harmless, then surely Christ would not have had to suffer.

But if God had "lightly" waved his magic wand at our sin to wash it away—if our forgiveness had not come at a great price—it would not be nearly so valuable.

The Light Princess both realized the depth of love that is present in sacrifice. Though the prince was a bit shallow, his love-filled sacrifice brought out the rightful sorrow that we have when we look upon the cross of Christ. Only ours is not confined to a fairy tale. It is anchored in the real history of all mankind.

Thanks be to God that he had a solution for our sin that is real, and deep, and grounded in truth.

Reflecting:

Sometimes things happen in our life that are heavy. And though we wouldn't wish for them to happen, one of the things that happens is that we look back and see that God was growing us through that trial.

What is a heavy situation that you have faced in your life? And what was one thing that God taught you through that experience?

Reading Classics

I asked you guys on the facebook page to list some of the examples of Christian classic literature that you were interested in reading.
 
The most common answer was "something by C.S. Lewis."  

I think that that answer is a good one, because C.S. Lewis does an interesting thing. He stands across a bridge of time, sharing with us thoughts and ideas that were explored in the centuries before his time and ours. However, he has only been gone from this earth 51 years, and he would not like us to consider any such writings as new as his to be considered "classics".

I discovered the quote in this picture in college when I was diving in to all of these wonderful, and old books. He wrote this quote in a preface to a book from the fourth century called, On the Incarnation of the Word, by St. Athanasius.

He was urging us, future Christians, to avoid something he called "Chronological Snobbery." He wanted us to avoid thinking that everything newer is better simply because it is new.

Those of us who spend time reading Scripture have probably discovered ourselves thinking the opposite way. We see the truth of God's Word, and the pattern that he calls for us to live, and we shake our head and say, "have we learned anything since the days of Joseph and Potiphar's wife?" or "are we any better than the sex-crazed people in the region of Turkey that the Apostle Paul evangelized to?"

I really appreciate the way that Scripture's truth is timeless. Even though the events in the history of the Bible are written about a specific time, the truth stands on its own, whether I am making the same mistakes as the people in the Bible story or not.

Something similar can happen when I read something that is more than a hundred years old. The way of thinking back then is different enough from the way of thinking that I am surrounded by, so that I can see my own errors all the more clearly.

One thing C.S. Lewis does well for me, is that he serves as a guide about which Christian classics are worth reading. I have a book called, From the Library of C.S. Lewis. This book goes through and shares some of the books from his library that he had claimed were most influential in his thinking and writing, and in his becoming a Christian. It is fun to imagine people pouring over his books and taking note of which passages were highlighted or which pages had notes written in the margins. I appreciate getting to look through a window into his library and getting to peek at what he thought was worth reading.
 

Something else that I think I already knew before I read Lewis, was that there is a power in a fantasy story. It is a power that is not only exciting for the very young, but also contains the ability to show the wise something special about our own real world.
 
So this week, I want to share with you guys a bit of both things.

We are going to read together a fairy tale, by one of C.S. Lewis's favorite authors, George MacDonald. about ninety years before C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald was writing serious works about life and faith, as well as fairy tales.

The fairy tale is called The Light Princess, and it is a humorous adaptation of princess tales, link Sleeping Beauty.

You can find all sorts of wonderful Christian classics on a website called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Because the books on here are old enough, there are in the public domain. So you can freely read them online, download the pdf, print them off, and in some cases listen to them as well.

Here is the website of the Light Princess. I hope you find it a fun read. It is certainly a fun, and though-provoking story.

The pdf is here. 

Next week, I will post some thoughts about the story, and ask some reflections questions.


 
God's Blessings,

Joel

1 Timothy 6 -- It's a Trap!

The discussion question this week is about what we can do to remember the eternal in the midst of our earthly lives.

I was happy to be a part of an interesting conversation. Some of the answers were:

• A general acknowledgement that everything we have is from God 
• Spending time in creation, and specifically at the beauty and vastness of the sky
• Looking toward God when we have utterly failed and need his forgiveness
• Seeking his help when those that we care about are in trouble

And I would add, singing songs of praise. Music is a spiritual thing for me, and the way that is pulls the lid off the world and directs my attention toward God is really amazing.

Digging in:

We are finishing up the book of 1 timothy. Chapter 6 has some summary things and some notes in it, but it is interesting how practical much of the advice here is.

I especially want to focus on the two ways of living that God describes in the middle of the chapter.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

-1 Timothy 6:6-10

I think that it is really interesting thing to think about how this section of Scripture calls out attention to the trap of collecting wealth as a means to happiness.

So if there is a flashing light on worldliness warning us that it is a trap, you would think that we would avoid it. But our culture has gotten so used to the trap that it is portrayed as the only way that things can work.

So many times I have heard my own Christians friends, (as well as my own actions) declaring that “we do live on earth after all,” and that “money doesn’t grow on trees.” So we "have to think practically.” And by that we mean a little selfish greed is what Capitalism is built upon, and it is the only way to stay afloat in this world.

So, to me that way of thinking is like walking up to the trap, knowing it is a trap, and putting out hand in it anyway, because we are hungry for some cheese. Then we just suck it up, and deal with the pain, and act like it was the only option.

But Paul and God give Timothy a different picture: he said previously, “if we have food and clothing we will be content with that.” And than later he says:

“But you, man of God, flee from all this (the trap), and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

-1 Timothy 6:11

God is telling us that we do not have to give in to the trap of worldliness. He doesn’t say that we cannot be rich, but he does make it very clear that our motivations must not be so selfish as to do things in order to get rich.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.”

-1 Timothy 6:17-19

Reflection:

What is more difficult for you to do, to let go of your possessions and “be generous and willing to share” them,

Or not to “put your hope in wealth” when it comes to making big decisions about your future?

Who in your life serves as a “Paul,” warning you when you are guilty of chasing money as a route to happiness, or encouraging you to live life in selfless service?

If there is someone in your life that you can be a Paul to, don't be embarrassed or afraid.