Monday, February 27, 2017

Who Pays For It?

The Big Bang Theory had an interesting story line last week. One of the characters has all of their bills paid for by their father (must be nice) and his friends were bugging him asking about it. There was this sense of ignorant bliss in which questions were not welcome, they didn't know how much their bills were, the bills were just magically paid and that was that.

I wish this story wasn't so funny, but it is because of how many people actually live like this. I know of college students who just had their credit cards paid for them, they had no idea how much they were spending or what things really cost.

And I also see this sometimes in students. After all, when they get to do things like go on a mission trip for free, what does the cost matter? This is a conversation Liz and I have had a couple of times, what the cost of trips or events should be. And the number we come up with usually has a factor most don't think of, what do we charge so that there is still value to what we are doing? If it's free, students didn't put anything into it, they show up late, they may just cancel (after all, it's no charge so cancelling doesn't cost anything), etc. Part of realizing the value of something comes with paying for it.

Maybe this is part of the reason Christ gave us the responsibility of the church. He left it all to us, we spread the gospel, feed the hungry, lead the worship, it's all up to us. But that also means we need to pay for it, He also left that up to us.

For the next few weeks WATER (our sr. high students) will be looking at all that God has "Entrusted" us with and our responsibilities that go with that. We hope if you're in grades 9-12 you can be a part of that, but even if you're not, you could start the conversations. If this is God's church and we want to do all these amazing things for God's people, who pays for it...?

(instead of a single Bible verse I read a story the other day that is great if you want one to read. In I Chronicles 29 David is asks the people for supplies for his son to build the Temple. They get so much it can't be counted! Great story).

T

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