Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday April 30, 2007

I often find insightful commentary on the Christian life as exemplified by Jesus Christ from some unusual sources. Today's rant is no different. Let me give you the quote and for a line or two you try to figure out from whom it came.

"We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition."

Who said the above?

Billy Sunday? Billy Graham? How about Paul Crouch? T.D. Jakes?

While the list is short, from a wide divergence of Christian leaders, none of the above.

Today's words of wisdom, clearly based on the teaching of Jesus Christ came from the pen of Harvard Professor, William James. It is interesting for many reasons, one of which is James was as they said in those days, "Born to the manor." His family was independently wealthy. He taught that any religious idea that improved the quality of your life, if it worked for you, was therefore good. Most of you and certainly me, disagree with this premise, but any of us would be hard put to deny the truth of today's quote from Professor James.

In America a poor person is anyone with less than you, and a rich person is anyone who has been slick enough and crooked enough to get more than you. We write of the above truth and create encyclopedic volumes, but it still boils down to the above definition.

The fear of poverty motivates a vast percentage of Christians. The phrase often attributed as a paraphrase of Paul, "I have been rich and I have been poor. I would rather be rich" weighs heavily on our minds and hearts. It is overlooked that Paul wrote most of his books from a hovel of poverty, often prison cells.

The simplification of life, even if it means a chosen poverty is necessary in the life well lived with inner peace, spiritual harmony. I do not think the Bible condemns people for having wealth, and it certainly does not condemn those who are poor for Jesus taught us the "we have the poor always" the teachings of Jesus do condemn the sacrificing of spiritual quality in order to gain in the realm of physical/material. In simple words, if you give up something that contributes to your spiritual strength in order to gain something material, you lose in the spiritual realm. The old philosophers taught, "The unexamined life is not worth living," it is also true "The complicated life is not worth the living."

Matthew 6 is the most explicit passage on living the simplified life in the entire world. It is also the toughest for it strikes at the heart of basic human fears and demands total trust in Christ.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit.

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