This Ordinary Adventure by Jeske Christine;Jeske Adam;

Author:Jeske, Christine;Jeske, Adam; [Jeske, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2012-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

A big piece of recentering our financial perspective has always come through practicing generosity. We had long since realized that generosity doesn’t always just come spontaneously spilling out of us, so we set up monthly direct deposits to our church and ministries we knew were doing good work. Each month we start by giving a solid 10 percent of what we earn no matter what purchases we have to make or what the rest of our savings account looks like, and then when spontaneous urges and appeals come up we try to respond above and beyond that baseline.

Giving away money is joyful and freeing, but I don’t think it’s an excuse to do whatever we feel like with that remaining 90 or whatever percent left for ourselves. Even if only 75 percent remained, or even 25 percent, we would still be soaring above the billion people in the world living on less than two dollars a day. Just having over $2,200 of assets (not income) each puts us in the top half of adults on the planet, wealth-wise. We had more worth than that much just packed into the six suitcases we carried back from South Africa, let alone in bank accounts and storage closets back in the United States.

Sometimes I wish that Jesus were just a little more legalistic and would give us a nice spreadsheet of where every percentage of our money should go each month. It’s not easy living in conversation with God over how we use our resources. It means sometimes God says, “Sit tight and be content with what you have.” Other times God says, “Look at what needs someone else has and help them out.” Other times God says, “Don’t waste your money on that junky purchase because it won’t make you happier anyway. You’re better off sticking that money in a savings account for a time when I have something better to do with it.”

For years God had taught me about finances as we raised money in order to do our work overseas. This process of “raising support” (common amongst Christian “parachurch” nonprofits) forces us to look hard at what we’re doing with our lives and check whether it’s worth the money people give us to do that work. It also forces us to acknowledge that money is God’s to begin with, and it exists to get God’s work done, one way or another. At the end of the day, that’s true for us whether we get money from gracious friends and family for our work with a ministry, or if we get paychecks from more traditional jobs. There’s no shame in earning money, whether a lot or a little, to accomplish God’s work. It’s not as if we get to hold the only key to a locked vault with our money inside—eventually (or today) God might have better use for it somewhere else. Managing money well doesn’t mean we never spend money. Sometimes we spend like crazy. The trick is to spend it where God wants it spent.

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