Will the Real Prosperity PLEASE Stand Up!

You know how when you are "in" something, you notice how so many others around you are "in" the same thing? What I mean is, if you have red hair, you notice how many redheads there are. If you have cancer, well, everyone else seems to have it too!

The same holds true for this personal recession I'm in....the whole world is in a recession! I can personally identify with GM! How ridiculous is that!?!

However, there is one thing that I'm NOT seeing a lot of.

The real prosperity message.

Matthew 19:21-23
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

I have read book after book that has the underlying theme that if you have faith and follow Christ, He will prosper you. While it's true that most of these God-fearing Christian writers are heartfelt about being open to receive God's prosperity here on earth, what about the treasure in heaven part? Scripture makes it clear that we can not serve both Him and money.

The young man in these verses went away sad because he was asked to give up what to us, here in North America, seems to be the very nature of prosperity.

In having to deal with the fact that the hog industry is worse than worse, we are having to make the very real decisions on what to sell, who to pay and will there be any money left. Will we stay living here? What will the bank do with us?

I was stunned to realize how much I identified with the young man....and I don't even have great wealth!!!!! I began to realize how much I love my stuff! I always thought that yeah, I liked it, but I could part with it at any time. I don't really have anything too crazy - like a Mercedes, and the last time I checked, I was not dripping in diamonds, nor is my jewelry box busting with baubles! We have lived a fairly modest, comfortable life, splurging on a thing or two, but certainly not rivalling any incomes coming out of Hollywood!

Now, don't get me wrong. The bank has not forced us into any of this...yet. We are voluntarily looking at our situation and wondering what we can do to downsize. Nor are we doing this because God called us to....or?

Why is it so hard for a rich man to get to heaven? Doesn't he have the same opportunity to salvation as a poor man? And where is the prosperity in being poor!?

I was amazed at how wrapped up I am in my stuff. Not only do I like it, but trying to get rid of it is insane! Talk about eating up a lot of time and energy! To sell things, you have to get a picture, place an ad, put it on-line.....now what about closing up accounts and getting the once-necessary equipment moved off your yard...and trades to come in and to do due diligence so that all environmental, building, electrical and plumbing passes code? You spend a lot of time on the phone, driving to places of business, signing papers - and I'm up to my eyeballs with little notes here and there of pertinent information.

On first glance at young man's sadness, I thought that his issue was perhaps parting with his favorite camel collection or race-donkey. Later on, when I read the passage again, after going through a day of lightening our own load, I realized something else. It's not easy. It is very difficult to go through the process of selling, cancelling and closing.

This passage says that he had great wealth. It does not say that he was sitting on top of a pile of cold hard cash...or coin. The sheer effort that it would take for this man to sell all his 'great wealth' would be enough to make him cry!

Now, I realize that there was no GM corp. or AIG or anything like that, but you can be sure that even in the bible days, business was business! Business is rarely simple.

Once I saw this, I realized that I had idols in my life that I wasn't even aware of! If God were actually calling me in a loud voice from heaven to sell my great wealth and follow Him to where ever, it would be really easy to decline, saying that it's too hard! You know, if I want to follow Jesus, I'm not sure he had plans to take my piano too! There ain't no u-hauls bound for heaven!

Somehow, I doubt that this is the prosperity Jesus had in mind for us. Yesterday as we checked stuff off our to-do list, the load lightened with every check mark. All I could see at the beginning of the day was bondage. At the end of the day, there was less of it.

I am really re-thinking the whole North American prosperity message. I know it's not wrong to have stuff, but it's easy for that stuff to have me!

Knowing what real prosperity is, is making this whole process of debt mediation and downsizing a whole lot easier to take.

May we find real prosperity as we shed the counterfeit!