Hard questions

*Please note that the following is just a collection of my thoughts and is no way claiming to be authority. I'm just a girl trying to figure life out. 

Today I received an email from a dear friend from college, Allyson. Let me just tell you, this girl is awesome. She is one of the most passionate, thoughtful, and kind people I know, and I've learned a lot about servanthood from her. We were talking about the I-HEART Revolution documentary that I quoted a few blogs ago, and I really liked what she had to say in response to it.

She said:

"A lot of times I feel helpless about poverty, especially globally. I get so overwhelmed with poverty nationally, or even locally, that I give up. I want to get involved and yet I have no clue where to begin. I know I have more belongings, food, water, clothes, than some small cities, which disgusts me. I sometimes wish my apartment would burn so that I could understand what it feels like to not have any material possessions. I get so distracted by reality tv, or dumb shows on tv and clothes and it disgusts me, but I do not know how to break my addiction to pointless things. I guess I should get off my rear end and do something, but I sometimes do not even know what to do."

I think she just verbalized what many of us think. I know I have felt the enormity of the global situation and felt beyond helpless. What difference can one person make, really? 

If we're being honest with ourselves, we all can pretty much say what she said. We as a culture are addicted to pointless things. 

How DO we break those addictions?

I've been having hard conversation with my friends lately about this stuff. We talk for hours, trying to find some answers to issues we've been struggling with for years, about the church and community, our purpose as Christians, social injustice and our responsibility to it, etc... We brainstorm, debate, and play devils advocate. Then just when we reach some sort of conclusion, we ask the killjoy question, "OK, so what does that mean for us?" which then launches into another hour of discussion. 

The common conclusion we often reach in these conversations is this: 

Lifestyle.

Living out the "church" the way God intended it to be is a lifestyle, not some organized religion we entertain ourselves with once a week. 

Living in community the way God intended us to is a lifestyle, and it doesn't include gossip, ungodly entertainment, and wasted hours on Facebook. 

Our purpose as Christians is to be a lifestyle, sharing the joy of salvation every day through our actions and our words.

Our responsibility to helping those in need is to be a lifestyle, giving our time and possessions freely as they are needed, because that is what church and community looks like. 

My friend Alicia sent me a quote, which was quoted by someone, who quoted it from someone else. Basically it said, "The opposite of poverty is not wealth, or riches. The opposite of poverty is enough. If you have enough, thank God. If you have more than enough, you've been blessed to help someone else make it to enough."

But what is enough? 

I still don't think I can answer that. 

But I know I have more than enough. 

So what am I going to do about it?

What are you going to do about it?