Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Do I really need this?

I really want a magic mouse. I played with one recently at Best Buy. That thing is just plain awesome. It doesn't have any buttons. You can swipe with two fingers and you can go back and forth between web pages. It really is magic.

I read this from C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity recently --

"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give [Regarding how much money a Christian should give away]. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small."

The other day, one of my classmates asked this question -- "Do people in the church really live any differently, spend their money any differently, than people outside of the church?" Honestly, I think the answer is no. We have all the same stuff, phones, cars, houses. We justify it by saying we aren't extravagant, we're just average. Just like everyone else.

The real question is why? Why do I want that mouse so badly? Why do I keep looking at the Apple website? Do I seriously really need that mouse, when I have a perfectly fine mouse right now? Maybe one day I will buy that mouse. I even asked for it for Christmas. Notice Lewis doesn't say that we should all move the desert and live off of bugs. But the point is, what is my heart captured by? Where do my thoughts drift when I'm not thinking about anything in particular? Are they captured by the cool stuff that I can buy? Or are they captured by something so much greater? If our hearts have been captured by something greater, shouldn't we be living differently? God, wean my heart off of these fallen things that will never satisfy...