I am part of a wonderful organization call LA InnerChange -- which is part of a larger organization called Church Resource Ministries. We just had a week long conference at a resort in Cancun Mexico. It efficiently brought hundreds of us together to learn with and from each other. But the all you can eat and drink for 1 price exposed in my my inner glutton. On top of that I could not divide my plate in half and go and find a more deserving soul for my constant over estimating what I could healthily enjoy. It humbled me further to find that I would get a sense that maybe fasting a meal would be good for me... But the mere walking by a grill cooking steak, chicken, sausage, and other delights would cause me to cave in and just go eat yet another meal.
Environments that consciously or unconsciously separate us from the "poor" or what Jesus calls "The Least of these". (See Matthew 25) Really accelerates the tendency of the human soul to spend what we have on ourselves and to fall into the vanity of losing sight of why self-denial is essential to healthy spirituality.
I now need personally to throw a few parties that Jesus encourages to regain my sense of balance. Our world is dieing from its own patterns of being either self-absorbed in pleasure, pain... and often both. The poor in LA are still dieing fast from what they think they want to consume... than from any lack of what they truly need. So the deception I am feeling pulled by is generally universal in nature. Contentment learns to say when enough is truly enough.
We all need a lot of perspective.
When I got home... I fell sick. But the sickness in my soul from being in an environment where I could have "it all" as pictured in those vacation post cards... simply exposed how far I need to go to truly be free from a heart defined by consumerism... and to learn to live in what Jesus calls "The Kingdom of God".
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