The Meager Life

Image found here.

Meager: Adj. of something provided or available (lacking in quantity and quality) derived from the Latin word for lean.

Starring out to a  beautiful view this morning I find myself not fixated on the mountains or the lake, golf course or trees, but the man on the riding lawn mower. I am envious of such a meager life. Meagerness is really relative because to many in the community I am surrounded by, my life is VERY meager (with the drop ceiling in the kitchen falling in to prove it.)

Living back in Katy and working where I do, my common observation of women from day to day is: Money. Buy a house in a suburb. Make more Money. Have kids and make sure they go to the right schools. Make money. Go to Panera Bread to meet other moms doing the same things and talk about it. Make more money. Go on trips and meet back at starbucks to talk about it. Make enough money to send the kids to college. Wedding Showers, Weddings, Baby Showers. Make enough money to retire.

Common theme there: Money. Common feeling there: Gross. Do people really want their whole life to revolve around money? I don’t think anyone does want that but then it happens, and it’s a cycle you can’t get out of.  Many of Rob and I’s conversations revolve around where money is coming from and going out to and being put toward. Which is smart in one sense but then we forget to have the conversation: 

“What do you really want to do?” 

And then everything changes.

I am reminded of a song I listened to on repeat because it was my hope for myself, and now more than it did before, it sounds like me singing it. (Its a great tune as well, download it. Actually, the whole album is one of my favorites)

David Mead- Ordinary Life

How did we ever end up here

Stuck in my old hometown

Shuffling our cards at the breakfast table,

Watching the world go 'round

Well baby you look like a princess

Wrapped in my old bathrobe

Torn from a page in a paperback still waiting to unfold

And it's true I've been waiting on an angel in disguise

So could you save me from an ordinary life

Where you can't be a kid in a candy store

Smacking your lips 'cause you still want more

I tried to be good but I'm still so bored tonight

And I just don't care for ordinary life

How do we get back to Kingston

Paris and Tokyo Bay

I've got a card with a number on it itching to pay your way

And it's true we can't quite afford the sparkle in my eye

But would you trade it for an ordinary life

Where you can't be the chick I was cruising for

Shaking your hips on a big dance floor

You tried to be good but you're still so bored tonight

'Cause you just don't care for ordinary life

And it's true I've been waiting on an angel in disguise

But could you save me from an ordinary life

Where you can't be a kid in a candy store

Smacking your lips 'cause you still want more

I tried to be good but I'm still so bored tonight

And I just don't care for ordinary life

The man on the lawnmower knows where his money is going. Knows what he is doing day to day, has a task and finishes it surrounded by mountains and trees and fresh air.  There’s a lot more trust in the Lord in this meagerness as well. 

This is what I really want: To not be so focused on money that I can hear the Lord say do this and go there. To travel and see places and experience the Jesus I know who lives in a cul-de-sac, in other cultures that trust him to provide on a daily basis their next meal because of their meager pay. To have a piece of land where I can grow vegetables and have a couple animals. To have kids that know the lord and who may be surrounded by all the money of their friends parents but do not wish it was theirs.

Rob and I have noticed too there is a much greater sense of community where money does not abound. We know all of our neighbors after living there for 3 weeks and my parents who have lived in their home 17 years, only talk to the next door neighbor when Fedex has to drop off a package to us because they aren't home.

1 Timothy 6: 7-10

7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Matthew 19:21-23

 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”