A Day of the Battles of Consumerism.

Today I had the privilege of joining my family on their shopping spree on this day dedicated to consumerism. My day started off with good intentions but little did I know I would begin a struggle that I never conceived I would deal with on this typical day that only occurs once every twelve months. All throughout the day I was spending countless amounts of money and would justify myself because I was making purchases for other people--which don't get me wrong was perfectly fine, but that is another topic in and of itself--and then I began to realize that days like "Black Friday" completely contradict what I have been reading about in Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and what I have been "preaching" to my fellow friends. I had been so focused on trying to find the best gifts I could for people that I was completely forgetting about all of those homeless who cannot spend large amounts of money on their friends. Now I know that it's great to use the money that God has allowed me to acquire to give towards friends, but I feel that if I am going to speak on helping the homeless I truly should watch where I put my money. What really got to me was when my aunt commented on my beard and I said "Well the homeless could not just go out and get their beard trimmed." to which she replied, "They also can't buy their friends books." Which really provoked my thoughts and created this struggle that I imagine is going to sadly continue in my life. A struggle between the consumerism that the world throws upon myself and the call to love the least of these. We should not simply say "I love the least of these" but we should be striving to help them in any way we can. I am always falling into the pattern of consumerism thoughts to buy more and more when in the grand scheme of things I do not deserve any of the things; in fact I should be using that money to help those who don't have anything. I just wish my desires to get more would one day transform into a desire to give more. When I am not around good sales my desire is to give to those in need, but I just wish that desire would always be there. I am praying the words from Romans 12:2 which says "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." I may be overreacting to the guilt of consuming so much for I am a flawed man, but I do know that I want God to completely change the way I think and allow these desires from the dust to follow His will alone.

It all starts with the question: Why?

As I sat here in my dorm room and contemplated what to do at such a late hour of the morning it occurred to me that I had started up a blog, but never took the time to write on it yet. I believe the most obvious topic to start with is why? Why this blog? Why do we ask that question so often though? Why should it matter my reason for wanting to start a blog. So often we are too focused on the question why, when we need to be more focused on the questions how and what. How can we make a difference in this world and What can we do to initiate that. How can I learn from this blog or What can I get out of reading this blog; Enjoyment? Freedom from the dreaded word known as boredom? To attain knowledge? We need to question why and how in everything that we do, because if we do not we can fall into the trap of just blindly accepting things. That may not seem like a trap to some, but to truly grow in life--whether through our "spiritual" life or "regular life" (As if labels and categories should really be necessary, but that's an entirely different topic.)-- we need to question the mundane, the extremes, and everything in between.  As one who is striving to be in relationship with our creator, God, I believe we need to all remember that in a relationship you cannot just blindly accept, but you need to question why and how can I... It is having the faith to question our beliefs that makes all the difference. I encourage the readers to take these words with a grain of salt and with your "crap detector" on, for these are simply the thoughts from one who was made from the Dust, a son of Adam, a Fallen Man.