Last night we took a family to whom we have been ministering to McDonalds.  They live less than a mile from this McDonalds so my assumption was that they had been there but that it would still be a special treat that they only got to enjoy a few times a year (we only “enjoy” it a few times a year, but for other reasons!).  Because Selah was sick, Ceci and Selah stayed home.

We knocked on the door to their shack and a shack that is about 120 square feet had 6 people hanging out in it.  I asked if we could take the two boys, Ayabonga and  Upiwe along with their precious mother to McDonalds.  They had no idea that this was our “plan” and seemed very excited.  We all piled into the Toyota Yaris (thanks Peter and Heather!) loaned to us and made the 3 minute commute to McDonalds.  After we had gotten our food and were sitting down, the mother asked me with all sincerity, “Isn’t this expensive?”  I assured her it wasn’t (I really should have stopped there) and told her what one meal cost assuming it would put her concerns to rest.  Instead, she was shocked to find it cost so much!  Of course, then I did the math in reverse and remembered what the average resident of Masi is forced to live on as well as how cheap food is in Masi and realized that OF COURSE this would be quite expensive on the budget they are living on!  I felt sick for having spelled it out so explicitly.  She then informed me that she (a 31 year old woman) had never been to McDonalds before.  Of course, the price of her meal was about enough to feed her for a week so the luxury of McDonalds was completely out of the realm of possibility for her or her two boys.

I then realized how much more careful we will need to be to honor those who are living in entirely different circumstances than which we from the West live. I also felt a wave of revelation considering just how wealthy western Christians are and how much we can do with so little.  By American standards we have quite a modest existence financially speaking, yet we have what this precious family can hardly imagine!  It’s unthinkable why so many people in America feel sorry for themselves when the world is quite filled with people who can not imagine our good fortune.

As a follower of Christ, I want to remember that EVERYTHING I have (not just 10% as we sometimes wrongly think) belongs to God and that I am called to be a wise steward of that.  For a very small price by your and my reasoning we were able to give a family a very fun night out.  Asher, Noah and I had a blast with them and felt so honored to be used by God to bless them, but they were blessing us so much as well by their presence and their company!

In Christ, God is reconciling the world to Himself.  It seems a very small price to pay to remember that we are not our own, we were bought with a price!  This means everything we have belongs to God.  The foolish notion that we sort of “pay God off” each month and then do what we want with “our” money is foreign to the pages of Scripture and we should abandon such thinking immediately.  Lord, please help us to remember it is ALL yours!

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