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Have you had a chance recently to consider how good you\u2019ve got it? I\u2019m talking about a deep down, soul-lifting consideration of God\u2019s gifts to you. The sort of thought process that reminds you you didn\u2019t hit a triple, you were actually born on third base!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re going through hard, hard times right now, it might be tough to think this way. But it also might be particularly important. I haven\u2019t spent much time on the precipice of despair, but maybe an effort to focus on what isn\u2019t terrible could be a good way to walk back from the edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A serious inventory of the good stuff in our lives might also pleasantly remind us that we serve a God of abundance and abundant goodness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The God of Abraham<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Imagine the beep, beep, beep of God\u2019s \u201cDump Truck of Amazing Gifts\u201d as he backs it up to Abram\u2019s tent<\/a> and begins to raise the bed! \u201cAbram! Grab your wife and get out here. I\u2019m fixin\u2019 to bury you in blessing! (What? God\u2019s not Texan?) You\u2019re going to have a land that\u2019s yours. You\u2019re going to have more kids than you can count! I\u2019m going to elevate your regard among all men. I\u2019ll have your back and mess with the people who mess with you. And, get this, both of you, you have a purpose beyond your imagination. You are charter members of the Global Blessing team. We\u2019re going to take these gifts to every clan on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The presents you and I get may be different from what God gave Abraham and Sarah, but they are similarly huge, certain, and rich in purpose. When I lived in Holland, I remember walking down the charming streets of Amsterdam, shaking my head and thinking, \u201cHow did I get so lucky to live and work here?\u201d Even now, in southern Colorado, it\u2019s crazy good. As I write, intrepid workers are installing solar panels on our roof to capture power from the wonderful number of sunny days here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may be cloudy where you are, but I hope you share my sense that a good God has smiled on you lovingly and abundantly. If so, there are two things I\u2019d like to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know \u201cprivilege\u201d is a provocative word these days and I don\u2019t choose it lightly. But I can\u2019t get around the sense that I have some advantages. I can make a long list of things in my life I did little or nothing to bring about but that make everything easier than it might have been. Maybe you do, too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I grew up with two parents who stuck it out through thick and thin and three siblings who didn\u2019t kill me though few would have blamed them if they did. Through junior high and high school, I had a pastor who pumped value into my friends and me and valued Jesus even more than he valued us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t worry about food, either the amount or the safety of what\u2019s available. Nor water. Nor whether or not I can keep the house warm enough this winter to keep the kids healthy. Nor if there are resources for medicine if they do get sick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I know I\u2019m part of a society that is still generally run by privileged people like me (see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>) and they still generally run it for their (and my) benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, I\u2019m not sure how to deal with that. If you felt like God was leading you to devote your life to leveling the playing field, I\u2019d cheer you on. But if the lone African American woman in my Perspectives class two nights ago, or the Mexican woman sitting near her, looked at me and asked, \u201cIt\u2019s not fair the way the system is organized right now. What will you, as an insider, do about it?\u201d I\u2019m not sure how I\u2019d respond. I hope I would at least listen to them and at a deep, honest level believe what they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This irony is not lost on me: I have the privilege to sit in my comfy chair, in my comfy house, and ruminate thusly, fully expecting you\u2019ll read what I type on my new MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes Jesus asks us to give up everything, right? That was his prescription for the rich young ruler in Mark 10. Zacchaeus<\/a> only had to give up half (and four times whatever he had gained by cheating!) Sometimes we expect that to be the vibe: God or a mythical preacher extending his mythical bony finger toward us and saying, \u201cThou shouldst giveth away thy goods and pecuniary resources!\u201d Fair enough. The Bible shows us there\u2019s a time and place for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I prefer the biblical model of stewardship. Every good gift comes down from the Father and is intended to bless his kids and facilitate their involvement in his kingdom-building enterprise. As good stewards we:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I so want to be faithful and true in this, but often fall short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, I read a super fun book related to this. (There\u2019s the privilege again: I have the time, eyesight, resources, and security with which to read super fun books.) In More or Less<\/a>, author and cool guy Jeff Shinabarger asks us and himself, how much is enough, and what would it look like to live a life of extravagant generosity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeff made me wonder what I have an excess of and what it might be like to give that away. Some of the things he did seem easy: Decide how many t-shirts you need and give away the rest. Others, not so much. He and his wife gave up a huge chunk of their backyard to be a community garden. Personally, I need to grow in understanding where I have excess. I\u2019m learning, slowly, how to give away money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one thing I have more of than some people is access to the attention of sharp believers. Yep, I mean you, among others. Believing that access to be a gift of God, I want to steward it to the best ends. When appropriate, I want to open doors for people who weren\u2019t born into the privilege I was, but\u2014and this should come as no surprise\u2014have important things to say about God\u2019s global purposes. (If that\u2019s you, I\u2019d love to chat<\/a>!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grace to you as you steward your time, health, privilege, and money. May God lead you in a few minutes of reveling in the good gifts of your savior and the delight of being chosen by him. It might help you to crank Matt Maher\u2019s Alive and Breathing<\/a>! It sure does me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Psst, over here, I\u2019ve got a quick question for you: If God has given you skills in the dark arts of admin and IT, I could use some help. I need someone to help me drop fewer balls and help me with the content delivery I think God may want me to be about. If that sounds interesting (or more importantly, like good stewardship) for you, shoot me a text (719.251.1403). Let\u2019s do some cool stuff together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Using Our Gifts & Privilege for God\u2019s Glory By Shane Bennett Read or share the email edition or scroll down. Have you had a chance recently to consider how good you\u2019ve got it? I\u2019m talking about a deep down, soul-lifting consideration of God\u2019s gifts to you. The sort of thought process that reminds you you … Continue reading Blessed to Be…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10817,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions\/10817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Let\u2019s recognize our privilege.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. Let\u2019s consider what to do with it.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Subversive Mobilization: Help Needed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n