James says that fights and quarrels come from our desires.
And we are told several times to fix our hearts on things above not things of the earth.
This has been impressed upon me from a whole new angle recently, as we have started a new buisness. You see it is soothing to the human spirit, and somehow feels good to give people money to help with a crisis. But what I have realized over the years is that more often than not we are actually guilty of a form of idolatry in how we help people.
We give people money, we get to play God, we get to be the hero, we get to be the rescuers. But even more than that we reduce real human beings to objects of pity, and completely disregard the image of God inherent to the human condition.
You see our God is one who works, he creats and designs and produces things. And we were created in his image at least in part to work. To create, and design and produce. And to the degree that we do for people what they are able to do for themselves, we rob them of the worship experience of being active workers in God's world.
Early on in this buisness venture I was asked if we needed financial help to get started, and in that moment I realized that in that moment, I had become the object of someone's mercy, in the wrong way.
They would like to help people, they believe that whatever are doing is a good thing, so they want to try to "rescue" us. But this turns the theology of work on its head. I do not need your "help" I need your buisness. Put me to work don't fix my problem.
Which leads to another realization. For people to actually change from a giving mindset to work mindset. They will have to change their habits. You see local goods and services are the single most important way to support work in any community.
In my case I am selling soapberries thAt are locally harvested in impoverished regions of the world. To help them develop a Biblical view of themselves and of their capacity for work, I need to encourage their local goods and services. This means that they need to sell soapberries, and for me to buy them I need to sell them, regularly and consistently. I don't need sponser so need customers!
Which means that individuals will have to forego the ease of commercially manufactured soaps, and the smells and cents they have gotten used to, for the sake of helping people. And ironically it is easier to give people $100, than it is to buy a product that forces is to change our habits. We are more likely to donate to a cause than thoughtfully change our habits to encourage others to work.
And as that boils down to our desires. And when we fix our affections on the wrong things, it results in idolatry. The odd fixation with the smell if "summer breeze" will actually prevent people from giving others a job, because it doesn't fit our taste, or is different than we are used to.
I would urge you to consider the importance theologically, as a matter of stewardship, and worship, of buying from the local farmers market. Shopping in your local stores, and buying products that encourage individuals to work in their local communities.
They don't need your pity, they need your buisness.
(If you have comments, please email me at : disciplemaker24_7@me.com)
Check out our webpage at www.soapberryharvest.com if you want to try something community sourced for your laundry.
