The Weather, Our Money, & Life in General...

It has been a while since I have updated on here, and thanks to my lovely wife there has been something for you to read in the last little while. The winter here is Alaska has been about as good as it gets. For the last week and a half we have not seen temps much under 10 degrees. We have hit as high as 40 a couple of times. The sun is coming back, which makes everyone a whole lot happier, and we have also had a couple of snow machines to play around with for the last month which has been a lot of fun. I had a chance to head up gravel creek with a couple of my youth group guys. Not only did I realize that they were much better snow machine riders than I was, but that I am much older and more out of shape than they are as well. Needless to say I was really tired when the day was over. It was a good time with the guys though.

Our ministry here in the Glacier View community has changed quite a bit throughout this past winter. Chelsea is completely integrated into the school which has also connected me with many of the teachers that teach our youth group kids. It has been a blessing to be able to get to know them a little better. One thing that I have found interesting about this community is that there are quite a few people who settled hear back before Alaska became a state (1959). Those same people are very independent and will not ask for help. This has made finding service projects for the youth group quite difficult. Earlier this winter we heard of an older couple who was out of firewood. As a kind of last minute project the youth group took hold of it completely, and we had about 10 people there to help. We cut and split 6 truck loads of wood and brought it up to their house in about 2 hours. It was great to be able to help out in the community this way.

As Chelsea mentioned in our last post we have been reading through the book, "Crazy Love," by Francis Chan. If you have not read the book already I would highly recommend it. If you know me at all I don't like to read, so if I recommend something you better bet its worth reading. This book has been helping me to change the way that I look at the lives we live. We just finished discussing chapter five which is titled, "Serving Leftovers to a Holy God." This chapter has influenced my life the most. I think I have read or listened to it four or five times now, and each time it helps me to rethink the way I live my life. It really hits on the way we serve our God. It talks about the way we spend our time, money, and resources. These are three completely different categories of which I think are very important to evaluate in our lives. I will explain them deeper in what Francis talks about as well as how it is being effected in my life.

Our Resources
I have been blessed to have many "things". Some of these are necessary to help keep living, like our chainsaw, to help keep our house warm without paying tons of money for heating fuel. Others are for our entertainment, TV, Video Games, Computer, etc. I have always thought of all of these things, necessary or not, and blessings from God. It has always been easy for me to help share these things with others so that they may benefit as well from them. I have also learned while living in this community that sharing your resources can be very beneficial for everyone. Not much of a challenge for me, but a reminder that it is important to share the things God has blessed you with.

Our Time
This one for me has been a struggle in the last while. My "job" is to work in two different ministry settings. I feel like God has called Chelsea and I to be ministering in these capacities so here we are. Since I am working in a ministry setting I previously have thought that I was giving a good portion of my time to God. After reading this chapter earlier this month I have realized that my assumptions were not good. Yes, God has called Chelsea and me to these ministries, but I was going home from work and taking all of the rest of the time for myself. I spend that time with my wife, which is very important, but I also spent a great deal of that time playing my Xbox 360. This time was pretty good as well because I was able to keep in contact with friends throughout the country. The problem lies when I turned from spending an hour playing and chatting with friends to 4 hours playing while my friends aren't even online. At this point it turned into just an addiction with no redeeming qualities. After reading this chapter in early January I realized that the only way to fix this addiction is to get rid of it completely. As of the end of January I sold off my Xbox as well as everything that went with it. I am not saying that I have made all the changes in life that I need to, but getting this addiction out of my life is a step in the right direction.

Our Money
After reading through this chapter this past week Chelsea and I have been having a couple of discussions about our money. Growing up I was always told that you are supposed to give 10% of what you make to the church/mission work. I know that there are many points in scripture where it gives the outline of 10% or one tenth of our earnings, but I feel like setting a guideline in this culture is not healthy. While I was growing up I would hear of people who would give exactly 10% of what they have earned. Not rounded at all, but to the penny. This seems to be the standard for many people. Don't take this the wrong way, I do not see a fault in this logic. Its a good standard, and gives us the financial stability that many people need. The issue with this is when people get the attitude that once they have given their 10% they are finished giving. They have fulfilled their duty! This past Sunday Marlin (our Pastor) gave a quote from C.S. Lewis that really made me think about giving in a whole new light.

”I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare…If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them.” C.S. Lewis

The idea that if we give and it doesn't effect the way we live our life we are not giving enough. I hope that I will be able to start to living with this in mind instead of just giving the amount that we "should" be giving and using the remaining portion to pad my selfish desires. There are a couple of thoughts/questions that I have had lately with no good answer.

First is the idea of an emergency savings account. Many people have one, just in case the car breaks down, or you break an arm, stuff like that. What about the idea of trusting that God will provide for you in times of need. Is it irresponsible to not have an emergency savings account because you gave that money to people who have an emergency RIGHT NOW?

The other applies to retirement. At what point do we need to be responsible for our retirement finances? Dave Ramsey tells me that I need to pay off my loans, and put away a bunch of money in retirement so that I can be a multi-millionaire when I retire. Now at that point I could be responsible and give away a much bigger portion of money, but I will also be tempted to use it to buy a retirement mansion in Florida or a time share in Hawaii. I think I have come to the conclusion that I don't have a clue what is the best use of my money. I know as we begin to look into our future that there is a fine line between saving up money for the future and storing up treasures here on earth, and I don't have an answer to which way is the way to go. Any thoughts into this mess would be helpful.

Also just to set this straight, I am not trying to put down the work that Mr. Ramsey is trying to do. There are many good things that he has done as far as helping people dig themselves out of the hole that they are in financially.