Sam is a man of habit. Seriously.
I was never more shocked than when Ryan convinced him to buy a pack of colored t-shirts. For most of the three decades I've known him, Sam has worn a white t-shirt in the summer and a white t-shirt with a denim snap-shirt over it the rest of the time. His sleeves are always unsnapped.
When we moved Sam to my house, I took charge of his clothes and laundry. I won't mention his organizational methods, but it took me a while to find his three denim shirts. One had a sleeve with missing elbow fabric and one's collar was in shreds.
Those shirts were as soft as a baby lamb, but they looked terrible. I didn't want to take him out in them, at least partly because I didn't want people to think I didn't care.
"Sam, you need some more denim shirts," I told him. "When you can't get your arm in the sleeve because your hand goes through the hole in the elbow, it's time for a new shirt."
He was having none of it. The shirts were comfortable...the collar felt good...he had one intact sleeve. The list went on and on. Finally, we came to the real reason. "Them shirts is expensive."
"What do you mean by expensive?"
"They're nearly $25 apiece. You can't just go buy one of them shirts."
I wanted to weep. Sam was wearing tattered shirts because he thought $25 was too much to spend for one long-lasting shirt?
Yes. He was.
I looked at my closet, bulging with clothes, and thought about how many items cost more than $25. When I made "doctor money," I didn't worry about $25 for a garment. Now that I'm on a missionary budget, I'm extremely frugal. My most recent clothes purchase was two used shirts for $5 and one for $10. Even on my new budget, that price for a denim shirt that will last for years doesn't seem too high.
Sam closed the discussion, but I kept bringing the topic back up. Finally, I asked where he bought the shirts and he told me, but cautioned me about the expense and warned me not to buy more than one at a time.
The next time someone gave me a break, I went in search of denim shirts with snaps and bought two. One to wear and one to wash. (I'm big on clean clothes.)
When I got home and presented the shirts to Sam, he was shocked at the extravagance, even though the shirts he had were barely wearable.
Those shirts will probably outlive Sam, but they've made me reconsider the priorities to which my closet attests.
We, the church in America, are, for the most part, the wealthiest people in the world. I can't comprehend the limited resources of those with less in this country, much less the poverty in other places around the world.
When an elderly man agonizes about a $25 denim shirt, can I justify my own extravagance?
Everything we have is a gift from God, including the money in our bank accounts. I wonder if He's happy about how we've used the resources He's loaned to us.
I've begun to ask God about every purchase. "Is this how you want me to spend Your money?" "What groceries do You want this week?"
It's changed my spending considerably, and my giving.
Today, let's ask God about our priorities. Are they in line with His or not? What changes do we need to make in our spending? In our giving?
Who do we know who needs help from the riches God has entrusted to us?
"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Matthew 6:24 NLT
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