On my mind lately...

So, lately I've been thinking about things like social injustice, materialism, consumerism, community - all wrapped up around where I am at, where I want to be, where I should be...I get started thinking about all this stuff, and then life gets busy, I get all wrapped up in other things, and I forget about again until something reminds me. This time it was an article in Relevant (really, the whole mag gets me thinking about things) - 'Laying it down: learning to live with less in a culture of excess' that kicked it off.

It all just gets me thinking about how I don't live out the Christian life of simplicity, generousity and service that Christ calls me too. That I am selfish, unloving, and willing to forget about the fact that so many people have so much less than I do, that people around the world are dying from lack of clean water, medicine & food - while I'm off getting Starbucks' frappacino's & eating junk, yet telling myself I'm giving all that I can (moneywise). I just feel like such a hypocrite sometimes - and I'm not sure how to maintain this attitude of awareness or how to let it transform my life. I don't want to be satisfied with the mediocre level of christianity that I am at. I want to stretch myself, to live a simpler life, to do things that Christ wants me to do.

The article reminded me of why all this is so challenging - it is totally counter cultural - totally not what the 'American Dream' is all about. It is much easier to be 'me' focused. But I don't want to be that way - and I'm tired with the way I've been doing things - I'm just not really sure how to make this be a change of lasting reality.