Covenant News

Christians Need Freedom from 'Tyranny of Possessions'

CHICAGO, IL (November 28, 2002) - On this very special Thanksgiving celebration day, the Department of Communication shares the following article taken from one of the more than 200 newsletters received each month from local churches throughout the Evangelical Covenant Church. The author is Gary Downing, pastor of Rochester Covenant Church.

By Gary Downing

(Wife) Kathy and I had a wonderful time away in the Dominican Republic. One of the highlights was meeting our Compassion International sponsor child. Thanks to Kathy's job as a flight attendant, we could fly and experience the joy of actually meeting our "kid" in person. Our little four-year-old boy, Wanderly Jose Silva Polanco, was so warm and affectionate we couldn't help but love him.

When he came running and gave Kathy a big hug to greet us, our hearts melted immediately. After visiting his school, we had the chance to go to his home and meet his family. It was a modest concrete blockhouse with a tin roof, but it was clean and tidy. When Wanderly showed us the kids' bedroom, we saw our picture we had sent and that he had saved all our letters on the table next to his bed. It was a special time to be with his family and share Christian fellowship despite the barriers of distance, language and economic status.

We could see that our support made a difference by providing real educational and nutritional opportunities Wanderly might not have otherwise. The only sad part was learning that Wanderly has sickle cell anemia, which lowers his energy and life expectancy. We pray that we might learn of ways we might be able to find help for Wanderly.

It is a reminder to me again of how much we have and how difficult it is to make our resources available to people in need. Yet we were so blessed by being just one link in a chain in one small boy's life that I think will have eternal ramifications. Jesus' love for the poor and needy surely felt tangible and real to us as we visited with Wanderly and his family.

The spiritual principle of giving as a means of experiencing love and security and gratitude stands in sharp contrast to the world's notion that you have to "get all you can and keep all you can get." Jesus invites us to give all we can and thereby receive all He has in store for us. It is as if we have to empty our hands of the "small stuff" we to so that He can give us the "real stuff" we ultimately desire.

That is difficult. The Thanksgiving and Christmas season is a thinly disguised time to buy, buy, buy and spend, spend, spend. We are bombarded by media inviting us to buy more than we can afford to gain what we cannot enjoy without giving from a heart of gratitude. But the Holy Spirit wants to free us from the tyranny of possessions and the quest for thrilling feelings that come from having new experiences. We can be truly happy and content when we overcome our over consumption and frantic pursuit for pleasure and allow God to give us what we can never get by ourselves. That's grace!

As we prepare for the holiday season, let's pray that our hearts will be tuned into what Jesus would like us to give and pursue what it means to follow "that distant drummer" in the noisy but empty world of greedy materialism. Our hearts will be strangely warmed with gratitude as we open them to the Holy Spirit's leading.

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