Over the weekend we talked about the role of money in a Christ follower’s life. We specifically looked at Luke 12:13-21, the parable of the Rich Fool. Manet, one of the Ladies in our congregation voiced a comment on the weirdness of our culture, she noted that the Rich Fool, today, would be the hero on the front page of Newsweek, Time and Forbes magazine.

The original crowd hearing the parable would have been shocked; disgusted at the man’s lack of social conscience. The Jews of Jesus days would have listened to the man’s ‘bigger barns’ and wondered why he didn’t share out of his excess? Leviticus 19:9,

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.’

We talked about the privilege of sharing from the edges of our lives. In the last few months God used Microsoft to talk to me! On XP there’s this nifty application called the Desktop Cleaning Wizard, every two weeks the wizard will tell me which icons I never use and ask me if they can be moved.

Our community accepted the challenge to invite the Spirit Cleaning Wizard™ to cast an eye over our possessions, time, money and gifts.

I shared a bizarre little story with my friends…

We used a Shure microphone for the singing part of our meeting, the value of the equipment, almost $300 in South Africa. The microphone was donated to us by a friend in Mozambique (his name is Mr. Short). Short earns about $80 a month! He gave us the microphone, because although he is a musician himself he felt like he didn’t need it. He shared his resources.

This week we’re all praying about our stuff. Whether we have clenched fists or open hands – what’s your thoughts?