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Christians Need Freedom from 'Tyranny of Possessions'
CHICAGO, IL (November 28, 2002) - On this very special Thanksgiving celebration
day, the Department of Communication shares the following article taken
from one of the more than 200 newsletters received each month from local
churches throughout the Evangelical Covenant Church. The author is Gary
Downing, pastor of Rochester Covenant Church.
By Gary Downing
(Wife) Kathy and I had a wonderful time away in the Dominican Republic. One
of the highlights was meeting our Compassion International sponsor child.
Thanks to Kathy's job as a flight attendant, we could fly and experience
the joy of actually meeting our "kid" in person. Our little four-year-old
boy, Wanderly Jose Silva Polanco, was so warm and affectionate we couldn't
help but love him.
When he came running and gave Kathy a big hug to greet us, our hearts
melted immediately. After visiting his school, we had the chance to go to
his home and meet his family. It was a modest concrete blockhouse with a
tin roof, but it was clean and tidy. When Wanderly showed us the kids'
bedroom, we saw our picture we had sent and that he had saved all our
letters on the table next to his bed. It was a special time to be with his
family and share Christian fellowship despite the barriers of distance,
language and economic status.
We could see that our support made a difference by providing real
educational and nutritional opportunities Wanderly might not have
otherwise. The only sad part was learning that Wanderly has sickle cell
anemia, which lowers his energy and life expectancy. We pray that we might
learn of ways we might be able to find help for Wanderly.
It is a reminder to me again of how much we have and how difficult it is to
make our resources available to people in need. Yet we were so blessed by
being just one link in a chain in one small boy's life that I think will
have eternal ramifications. Jesus' love for the poor and needy surely felt
tangible and real to us as we visited with Wanderly and his family.
The spiritual principle of giving as a means of experiencing love and
security and gratitude stands in sharp contrast to the world's notion that
you have to "get all you can and keep all you can get." Jesus invites us to
give all we can and thereby receive all He has in store for us. It is as if
we have to empty our hands of the "small stuff" we
to so that He can give us the "real stuff" we ultimately desire.
That is difficult. The Thanksgiving and Christmas season is a thinly
disguised time to buy, buy, buy and spend, spend, spend. We are bombarded
by media inviting us to buy more than we can afford to gain what we cannot
enjoy without giving from a heart of gratitude. But the Holy Spirit wants
to free us from the tyranny of possessions and the quest for thrilling
feelings that come from having new experiences. We can be truly happy and
content when we overcome our over consumption and frantic pursuit for
pleasure and allow God to give us what we can never get by ourselves.
That's grace!
As we prepare for the holiday season, let's pray that our hearts will be
tuned into what Jesus would like us to give and pursue what it means to
follow "that distant drummer" in the noisy but empty world of greedy
materialism. Our hearts will be strangely warmed with gratitude as we open
them to the Holy Spirit's leading.
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