About a month ago, I decided to let go... and let God. It's really hard to loosen my grip, and say farewell to a beloved and cherished friend. But this is for the better, for a cause that's greater than myself. So now, I brace myself for days when my cravings will taunt me, but then I have to fight it off. I will miss you my beloved Starbucks, it's been a wonderful journey with you... thank you for keeping me up during finals week and assisting me in my thesis writing. Your taste will linger forever, but this must end now. You're too freakin' expensive and our love affair is no longer worth keeping.
Why the break-up?
Because every year, 15 million children die of hunger, thousands of native missionaries need financial support, there's over 600 million street children in the world... and the list goes on. Seems irrelevant, but it has everything to do with my Starbucks fast. It's an issue of the heart, something God dealt well with me in the season that I am in right now. My lifestyle has a lot of "excess baggages" that are really non-necessities. I eat in restaurants and coffee shops where my purchases would be worth a child's education, I buy clothes that would feed an entire family for a week, I have all these "extra things" that really, don't have any eternal significance.
If a brother or a sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James 2:15-17 (KJV)
If I truly wish to help the poor and needy and I claim to be a follower of Christ, then why isn't this manifested in the way I spend my money? I may not be able to solve the world's poverty problem with this new-found resolution I have, but at least I am doing something. I intend on scrapping off all my other expenditures and give a big chunk of my salary to tithes, supporting missionaries, and sponsoring a child thru World Vision. All these I do for the glory of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:21). To die to myself and become a good steward of what the Lord has blessed me with.
Prov 23:4-5. Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
I had second thoughts in making this conviction of mine made known to public. But I truly believe that this consumerist generation must be nudged of its selfish ways. I am the chief among them. I have nothing against Starbucks per se, but it has become for me a symbolism of materialism and self-gratification. The reason why wealth is so inequitable and that the gap between the rich and the poor is so wide, is because at the other end of the spectrum are people who refuse to share whatever they have to others.
Heb 13:5 "Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have."
If only everyone in the upper economic strata would abstain one venti of Caramel Machiato a week, then millions would get fed... Five cups would provide for a child's educational needs. One generous heart could impact millions of lives.
He who is faithful in little things will be faithful in greater things... In my meager salary I decide to offer it up to the expansion of His kingdom, that He may entrust me more and more. Although I have been well-provided by my parents and I do enjoy the financial blessings God has given our family, I refuse to have my heart swayed by all these things. I pray that I would never seize weeping for the poor and the needy; I ask for grace that God my guard my heart from the deceptions of greed and extravagant living. There's so much more to life than hoarding possessions and wealth. If you are serious about being a disciple of Jesus Christ, then give up all of your possessions and allow Him to do whatever He pleases with them (Luke 14:33). Let's check our lifestyle shall we? Are we playing deaf to the loud cries of the poor in the name of one cup of coffee?
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