Saturday, May 26

Jesus at the Yard Sale


My day was flooded with yard-saledom. Our youth group did one of those insane churchwide junk sales filled with blood, sweat, and sweet old ladies knocking early on the doors at 6:30am. We did the sale to raise money to mostly give away, and made about $1k. It flies in the face of what makes sense right now, especially because church budgets are an everlasting concern. But lately in our youth gatherings I've been trying to teach that the Kingdom is about extreme generosity and simplicity. Trying to find ways to make it real to them. (To us.)

The junk-recycling thing started to wear on me today. Granted, I love finding Family Circle magazines from 1961, and other random delights, but, I was feeling pretty gross while observing the sales all morning. I wonder when it is that we Americans caught this disease of needing stuff. I'm pretty sure my grandparents were innoculated from it, particularly through the Depression years. I hope my kids can get the vaccine, too, one day.

(Finding Jesus photo, Greg Robbins.)

5 comments:

spain dad said...

Hi Jenelle. Reading your post made me think of this website that a friend of mine recently told me about. You enter your yearly salary, and it tells you how rich you are in comparison to the rest of the world.

www.globalrichlist.com

I'm a missionary, so I thought maybe I wouldn't be that rich. I was wrong. I'm in the top 12% in the world. Somehow that makes me feel a lot more responsible with the money God has given me, and a lot less interested in browsing garage sales.

ajn said...

J-bird,
I am battling the "needmore/needless" disease as well. What I found really encouraging was that mewithoutYou has potlucks before their shows and encourages people to bring homemade dishes of food, and their own utensils, cups, bowls, etcetera. It made living simply appear reachable...at least some day.
Love,
Arianna

Rachel said...

I love the term yard saledom. : ) Just thought you should know that.

Also, I totally hear you on the burden of having of two much stuff. As stressful as it has been to move across continents and oceans as many times as I have, it is nice the way it forces you to travel a little lighter than you otherwise might.

UGN said...

What a cool picture!

Shirley said...

Great post thank you.