debt and giving

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37423674/ns/business-personal_finance/
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
http://www.economist.com/node/17041738?story_id=17041738

Well, from these three websites it appears our household debt as individual Americans is almost exactly the same as the national debt. Our individual debt is 13.5 trillion whereas the national debt is 13.6 trillion, just unfathomable numbers. I couldn't find out how much debt churches have when I did a search on that but I'm willing to bet it's not an insignificant sum either. According to the Economist article our household debt is at 126% of disposable income. So while it's popular to scold our government for reckless spending, which I agree with, should we not also be scolding ourselves for reckless spending? In one of the articles I read for this it said that only 7 states require a passing grade in a financial class to graduate high school. So we have a ton of 18 year-olds arriving on college campuses not really knowing how to handle money unless they were lucky enough to be taught by their parents like I was. And what's one of the first things to greet a college student his freshman year? A credit card offer with a free T-shirt attached that usually says COLLEGE or something else clever or stolen from a movie like Animal House. Also, I wonder how many tea-partiers attend mega-churches who are in debt up to their eyeballs. There is a church in Bradenton that just opened a new campus that is going to cost $20 million when it's all said and done. Now, I'm not an insider and maybe they already have that paid off but I highly doubt it. I heard of another church in Sarasota that was in a sticky situation because they weren't able to make their payments on the building and the land they had purchased from the bank. That would sure put the banker in a tough situation, wouldn't it? Are you going to close down a church? Should that church have taken out that big of a loan to begin with? There was a church in Lakewood Ranch near where I used to live that had a big thermometer in their entrance with a goal of $6 million to build a new addition for a worship space. Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a building as a church. In fact, some of them can be used to help the community a lot. How many times though, does a worship space which is typically the biggest space in a church, sit empty during the week? We call our people to be good stewards with their money and resources, but are we being good stewards as a church with the resources we're given? How much of the budget is devoted to missions? Is it less than the part of the budget required to pay for the building or land? Can we really claim to be putting others first if it is in fact less? Then there are the end times preachers who preach that the end is near but apparently that isn't enough to stop them from buying ever bigger campuses? If the end times are upon us, then why spend your people's money on a new church building? I remember talking with my buddy Ryan before we started a church and I said I thought one of our goals should be to get our missions budget to 50% of our overall budget. I still have that goal for the church but it will be very hard to get people behind that vision if they're used to attractional church. A lot of people go to church to be fed, and we need people to come to church to be sent out. We need to empower people to be missionaries in their lives whether that's with their kids or at their jobs. If churches and American Christians are in debt like the culture around us, how is that being a peculiar people? How can we be a light if we're so busy paying off ridiculous amounts of debt? Some debt is understandable, but some is just downright foolish. I'm just as guilty as the next American of wanting the latest gadget, but when does it stop? When do we say, "Enough already?" When do we as Christians start truly living out the command 'Love your neighbor as yourself?' You may ask, "What does money have to do with loving my neighbor?" Absolutely everything would be my answer. You put your money somewhere and your heart will follow. You can tell a lot about a person by their checkbooks. And when will we as New Testament believers start seeing a 10% tithe as a floor instead of a ceiling? That's where we should start, not where we should stop or stay at. What if you committed to giving 1% more a year? Not to be legalistic but to just trust God to supply your needs even more. Or, another suggestion by Randy Alcorn, is to decide on a budget of what you can live on and then anything above that you give away. That way, if your income increases substantially you're more likely to increase your standard of giving as opposed to automatically increase your standard of living. How cool and countercultural would that be? That would be a sign of a peculiar people.

Venice, Trieste, Barcelona, and Paris so far

Venice was by far the most expensive city I've been in. Total tourist trap, cool city, but they gouge you for everything. There were definitely some cool things about it, like the complete lack of car noise and taking the water bus along the main canals, I think I was just overwhelmed at how much everything cost there. Went to Trieste to visit my friend Kelly and had a great time there. It was nice to spend time with a friend and fellow American for a change. Had to stay in a hostel when I was in Venice, which certainly added to the price of things. Thankfully, I got to stay for free at Kelly's for a couple of nights so that was a much-welcomed reprieve from paying for lodging.

Next was Barcelona, Espana. My coworkers at Tuttle had warned me to expect them to have a lisp and boy did they ever. Instead of "cinco" euros it was "thinco" euros. No one came through on couchsurfing so I had to hostel it again, which drains me of money and just sucks my soul somehow. I spent a lot of time in the hostel trying not to spend money due to the previous week in Venice taking such a toll on my bank account. My thought was that if I didn't go anywhere than I wouldn't spend any money, and it worked thankfully. I did go on a couple of free walking tours which were great and also saw the famous "Sagrada Familia" by Gaudi which is still in the process of being built. It's absolutely enourmous. I just walked around the outside and was impressed by all the cool architecture. I'll add pictures when I have wifi on my computer (I'm currently using my couchsurfing host's computer for this update.)

A couple of days ago I came over to Paris. I went to Paris in 2007 for a 5-day vacation and loved it so I thought I would come here again. This time it's much colder (last time I came in August) but there are still plenty of really cool sights to make up for the cold. I'm loving it here so far. A couchsurfer came through and he's another great guy who has been a wonderful host...I haven't eaten this well in I don't know how long. My parents were a little hesitant with me coming over due to all the strikes they've been having but I came anyways (they're supposed to strike tomorrow again so we'll have to see how that goes.) Just today alone I went to the Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, and the Louve. All really impressive stuff and I promise to post photos once I have them downloaded on my computer and have wifi access. There were some really cool street performers in front of Sacre Coeur that I took some video of so I can't wait to post that on facebook when I get a chance. The first guy juggles a soccer ball in a way that would take your breath away. Probably the most impressive was when he was hanging from a light pole with his feet out in front of him juggling like it was nothing...really incredible. The second was a group of break dancers and I don't think I know of anyone who doesn't think that is cool. I really had a great day today and don't know how I will top it tomorrow. Oh, and I saw the Eiffel Tower give a light show like it does every night on the hour for 5 minutes. It's really incredible if you've never witnessed it before.

Well, it's almost 1 am here so I'm going to call it a night. Hope you're all doing well on your side of the world :)

Roma

Again, it appears I've been slacking on the posting of these blogs, sorry about that.

Well, Rome, or Roma as the Italians call it themselves, was absolutely fantastic and by far my favorite place I've been thus far on this trip. The main reason was because of the second couchsurfer I stayed with. His name was Francesco and he was a great host. He struggled with English but his hospitality more than made up for it. We shared many good laughs talking about Roma and its people.

Well, Roma started out less than pleasant. Note to self, when booking a hostel, do NOT go with one that is a hostel/campsite. This means it is somewhere in the woods, far away from the city. It took me a good two hours to reach this place from the airport when I got in on last Monday. Thankfully, a couchsurfer named Luca picked me up for the next couple of nights and I didn't have to go back out to no man's land. Luca was an alright host, but unfortunately he was really busy working or going to his new girlfriend's house. Ironically, I ended up helping to move his current roommate out of his place on Wednesday morning, so that was interesting. I was glad to help but was also thankful when I was excused to go to the city center.

After a couple of nights at Luca's place, I met Francesco in the city center right outside of Station Termini in front of a...you guessed it, McDonald's. You may ask why I chose this spot as McDonald's is one of my least favorite places to go. One thing is true about it though, it's a great and easy landmark to see and meet someone at. It's just too bad it's completely changed the food industry for the worse.

So I drop off my backpack in Francesco's Ford Fiesta and he asks me what I would like to do. I say in response, "Well, I'll let you be the guide." This turned out to be about the best thing I could've said at that point. Francesco KNOWS his city like the back of his hand. We went to a ton of different churches and side streets that I would never have seen as a regular tourist. He even had explanations for certain things, like why Moses was made with horns coming out of his head (it was a misinterpretation of Scripture of when Moses came down off Mt. Sinai.) I also saw the ectasy of St. Theresa which was cool and the brilliant piece of several saints with the centerpiece being Moses again. It is said that Michaelangelo asked the sculpture of Moses when he was finished with it, "Why don't you speak?" Also, there was a statue representing the four winds and legend has it that the competing artist made one figure with his hand shielding his face from the building in front of him because it was made by his rival artist and he was saying how ugly the facade of the building was. In reality, it was built after the statue but it's a fun story nonetheless.

On Saturday afternoon we went out to his place in the northeast of Rome, about an hour outside of the city nestled in this ancient city in the mountains. It was simply gorgeous. The keystone above his entrance to his house said 1590. It was built in 1590! Amazing!!! We hung out in the little town that night, made homemade Italian spaghetti with real tomato sauce, and slept well because we were going to get up and hike with two of his girlfriends in the morning. His two friends met us in the town square the next day and we got into the back of their car and drove to where the trail was. It was a beautiful day for hiking. At first, I thought these older people were going to put me to shame because I hadn't been hiking in I don't remember how long. But as it turned out I put them to shame! Apparently all this walking around cities has me in better shape than I thought! At the top of the trail we got to pick some wild blackberries, simply delicious after a 4 km long hike up a pretty steep mountain. We headed back down the mountain and the ladies came over for a glass of wine and then left. Francesco and I left not too later and were heading our way back to Rome when all of a sudden, BAM! His car dies in the middle of the highway. Thankfully traffic was pretty bad so no one was going fast anyways. However, this had already happened once in the ancient city so I wasn't looking forward to what I knew was coming next. "Please," said Francesco. "Alright," I say less than enthusiastically. So I get out and am pushing this little Ford Fiesta down a Roman highway! haha, crazy! Unfortunately it didn't start for quite some time so I had to push it quite a ways before it cooperated. It definitely made me never want to buy a Ford, I can assure you of that. I'm just thankful it wasn't a huge SUV. Then I really would've been huffing and puffing more than I already was. They really don't have hardly any SUV's over here in Europe, mainly due to the high cost of gas. Yet another reason we need higher gas prices.

We finally make it back to Rome, what took us an hour on the way out took about 3 hours on the way back due to heavy traffic on a Sunday night. Oh, and I also learned that the center white lines make a "scooter lane" which holds pretty true as all the scooters inevitably use it as their lane to pass everyone. The scooter drivers are nuts there, completely fearless.

Needless to say, Roma was my favorite city so far on this trip. The people are loud, the cultural atmosphere is intoxicating, and the food is out of this world! Even though I didn't throw a coin over my shoulder at Trevi fountain I know I'll be back there someday, God willing :)