In a rich man's world...

Happy Christmas Eve!
I have just eaten a bowl of cherries, peaches and nectarines and am feeling particularly content. Hurrah for festive fruits! Although this blog wasn't intended to boast about my gluttony or to ramble about the joys of fruits that make an appearance during the Christmas season. Christmas Eve can mean many things. For many it is a time of anxiety. For some this anxiety is entirely superficial. "I will just DIE if great aunt Josephine doesn't love the $100 ornamental duck I bought her this year!" You can replace great aunt Josephine with Grandma Mary, or Mrs Potts down the road, or your 8 year old cousin; and you can replace the ornamental duck with a Nintendo Wii, or a longboard, or a year's subscription to Cosmo; the result is the same. Whilst the giving of gifts is a wonderful and generous thing, if this is what threatens to make or break the joy-factor of Christmas, we are missing the point. I have been thinking about money, gifts and the 'importance' of material things over the past couple of days. This doesn't make me particularly insightful; I'm sure that most people have been thinking about these things in one way or another. On Sunday night Warren gave a sermon on finances, and how the Bible reassures us that God will provide for His people. I'm sure that most of us hope that when the Bible says that God will 'provide' it means that we will live a comfortable existence free from financial stress that allows all of the latest mod cons to be within reach. As nice as that would be, it is humbling to realise that even when God's definition of 'providing' may differ from our own, He will provide, and we can rest in that promise. Throughout the sermon, Warren challenged us to allow God to be the one who manages our finances. So this week I have been thinking about what that should look like from a practical standpoint. As Christians, the way that we earn and spend money should glorify the One who has provided for us, so what does this mean during the Christmas season, and even in our everyday purchases? I have spent time in the houses of many wonderful Christian families, who are giving and welcoming people and who clearly live Christ centred lives. Yet many of these families have plasma TVs that take up half of the wall, every imaginable gadget and time saving device, all of the latest toys/DVDs/virtual games, wardrobes full of fashionable clothing, bathrooms full of countless products/makeup/smelly things, and kitchens full of expensive gourmet food. For many this encapsulates ideal living in our society, but is this really glorifying our Father with our finances? Now.. I will just point out that I am a Uni student with a limited income who is employed by Education Queensland yet relies on the royalties of babysitting during the school holidays, and who, for argument's sake and to complete the visual, has just noticed a hole in the shirt that she is wearing, yet knows that she will continue to wear it. In this stage of my life it is quite easy for me to be outraged at people who seem to spend money willy-nilly, knowing that there is no risk that I will do the same because I simply cannot afford it. I wonder if when I am old and rich (unlikely on a teacher's wage.. but the 'marrying a rich husband' plan hasn't been ruled out yet..) I will still feel uncomfortable about pouring huge amounts of money into superficial things that are supposed to enhance and enrich our lives. I hope that I never use our society and culture as an excuse to justify spending the money that God has blessed me with on things that are purely designed to serve myself and satisfy selfish desires, or encourage that in others.
Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this! Praise God for the real reason for the season - when He gave the most precious gift of all!