What breaks my Heart

This is an one, the american dream. I have to be careful though with this one because I can go off the deep end and forget that God use all of us. Rich or poor God has a plan for all.

Matthew 26:6While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, ⁷a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. ⁸When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. ⁹"This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor." ¹⁰Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ¹¹The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. ¹³I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

That hit me hard this past week when I read it and realized that I can become judgmental about the rich man, so with in this post I want to be careful about the American Dream. But what does break my heart is how many people will sell their soul to live out the dream that simply might not be there's to live. Because we live in such a materialistic society we have a habit to put success on what we have and out banking accounts. All of that is okay, but at the same time I believe that God gives us the resources to use for his kingdom. I believe there is nothing wrong with a big church or a small church. I believe their is nothing wrong with a big house, a nice car, or allot of money. I believe the problem comes when that is not shared with others.

But I also believe the problem is that we feel the need for all this stuff and we do not receive we feel that God is not there. We hold on to the world and believe that will buy our happiness. Because of this the poverty problem in America is not high, but I believe we have a habit of not helping these people move out of their positions. I have students who live is these positions and it is amazing how they feel stuff will help them. One of the best things we stopped doing in our youth ministry was buying a bunch of stuff. We invested our time, energy, and money into relationships.

So much of the american dream is not built on a relationship but a success story. I have asked myself what if I went to a youth conference and if someone would speak on their horror stories. My favorite would be what if they talked and posted a picture of that kid who is still the biggest pain and they would love to see them leave the youth group and go to another church, but for whatever reason they stick around. But what I hear and see are success stories. Maybe I am way off on this, but I can't help but thank about the disciples falling asleep while they should have been praying. I always think about youth ministry when I hear that story. It's raw and real. What bugs me the most is that I am guilty of this.

I believe if we really focused on the relationships and use all of our stuff for the kingdom of heaven, we would see something awesome take place. My prayer is that we would see the kingdom of heaven come alive here on earth.