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Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Jesus Fund

One of the ideas that came out of reading Radical for our family was "The Jesus Fund."

You know all those commercials that say, "Hey, if you skipped this cup of coffee every day you could sponsor a child!"

And then you know how we all ignore it?

For me, it just isn't concrete enough. Sure I could skip that cup of coffee (tea in my case), but I would just go ahead and spend the money on something else just as unnecessary.

Enter the Jesus Fund. Because I like concreteness.

Now, when I make volitional choices to pass up the purchases I would usually spend money on that I really don't need to be spending money on, I keep track.

Quicken is a beautiful thing. It has helped us really keep track of where our money is going and has helped us allot our money to where we want it to be going and not just where we're spending it.

Quicken has this great feature in which you can "save" money and make an account for it without actually having a separate bank account. They are termed "savings plans".

Well, now Jesus has His own plan.

When we skip out on a regular purchase, we "transfer" money from our checking account to our Jesus fund. We're going to pray about where that money should go as it increases. For now we're just keeping track and seeing what that change looks like.

You get to be my accountability partners and see what is changing in our spending and how quickly this adds up. Part of me wants it to add up fast and part of me knows I'll be ashamed of how excessively I want to spend our money as I watch it add up.

Stay tuned.

PS - If you decide to start a Jesus fund, let me know. I want to be watching you too. :)

photo credit

Friday, February 24, 2012

Cleaning It Out


A friend of mine introduced me to Jen Hatmaker and her radical book, 7.

I started reading it on Wednesday and today I started making concrete changes as a result of the convictions it has prompted in me.

I say convictions and not guilt because guilt is not driving the decisions I'm making. My hunger for Christ-likeness is leading the charge. Finally!

We have an ENORMOUS pantry in our kitchen, including three massive shelves that span about 6 feet in length each. And it is full.

I called the kids into the kitchen with me tonight and talked to them about what many kids in Haiti have right now. Rice and beans. Two things. I pulled out a container of rice and a can of beans and set it on the floor. I told the kids, "If I handed this much food to a kiddo in Haiti right now they would think it was Christmas."

My kids jaws actually dropped.

I explained to them that I had been learning new things about how God wants us to live and how we were going to change as a result of that. Change number 1? Going through our things. Seeing what all we have, taking stock, disposing of the expired items, giving away that which is good but we won't use and making a plan for the items we have. We cleaned out 1/3 of the pantry. Not our cupboards. Not our refrigerator. Not our freezers. (Yes, more than 1 freezer.) Merely 1/3 of our pantry. We pulled out 120 items.

120!

Tonight I am not okay with that. I made a list of meals I'm going to make this week with many of those items. Why do I possibly need to go grocery shopping with that many things in 1/3 of my pantry?

Our new rule in the house is we don't buy food to replace other food until the first thing is gone. Don't want the snacks we have? Well, we can get new ones when these ones are gone.

Your thoughts? How many things do you have in your pantry?