the    sides

Did you know we have a student ministry blog? We do - it’s at studentparking.org. Plus the podcast over there - which this week is turning out to be quite the contraversial podcast! We did some teasing of Fernando Ortega. All in good fun, I assure you.

But this was my weekly evo…

eBay and God

I’m running out of space on my laptop - who’d ever thought 30 gigs wouldn’t be enough? Well it isn’t. So after months of deleting everything I could possibily delete, I came to a hard conclusion. I either “need” a new computer or an external hard drive.

Enter eBay. I love ebay. I’ve gotten steals of a deal through them - guitar, digital camera, cell phone accessories, clothes - you name it. It’s a habit at our house - thinking about getting something? Check eBay.

eBay thrives off the principle that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. (I’m convinced that women have never ever owned or purchased anything that could be classified as junk…insert sarcasm here.) eBay is the answer to the question is it possible to get what I want at the very lowest price.

Craig’s List is another service. I bought a $1,000 refrigerator for our new home for less than $400. In fact, I paid less for this refrigerator than the one we sold with our house in Little Rock and it’s nicer. What more could you ask for?

eBay and Craig’s List are allowing me to fulfill my dream to be the laziest consumer on the planet!! In other words, I’m getting exactly what I want for the least amount money.

I started thinking about this during Ray’s sermon yesterday. No, I wasn’t daydreaming - Ray was preaching on giving and why we give and what the Bible says about it. Ray said some pretty awesome things yesterday - like giving keeps us from being selfish, it helps us remember what God has done for us, what we spend our money on shows us what we think is most important.

Then I started thinking about the recent stats on church giving - which honestly haven’t changed in a while. Only 6% of people who go to church, tithe (give 10% of their income) to that church. 35% of all attenders give NOTHING to the church. Mars Hill Church in Seattle just recently sent out a letter telling their congregation that close to 400 households give nothing annually to their church. Nothing????

Has our eBay/Craig’s List mentality bled over to God? Let’s ask some hard questions for those of us living in the student culture. How much time do we spend listening, engaging God compared to other things? How much money do we spend on entertainment in comparison to God?

I’m not saying the other stuff is bad. I’m saying if you have more of an investment in them than God - it’s bad. Who’s the big loser in all this? Inquiring minds want to know.