Today is Gonna be the Day that They're Gonna Give It Back to You

I don't think I really believe all of this talk about snow. It just seems like a big tease after we were promised snow earlier in the semester and a drop of rain did not even fall. Trust me, I want to be wrong about this, but I just do not see it happening.

In other news, today might have been the best chapel talk that I have heard in my time at ACU. Damon Parker, former Gamma Sig and fellow Whitehouse High alum, spoke on the passage from Jeremiah 22:13-19. In the text, Jeremiah delivers a scathing rebuke of King Jehoakim, who has unjustly built his kingdom by oppression and explotation of the poor and destitute. In many ways, Damon came as a modern day prophet calling us out for doing much the same thing today. As we sit here comfortable on our secure campus, people are scrounging for things that we throw away each day. We would like to think that our cars, clothes, and trinkets are in a different category than huge palaces or monuments, but it is really a heart issue at the core of the matter. I don't think Damon was saying that Christians cannot own nice clothes, new cars, or live in nice homes in every instance, but if you sacrifice service to the destitute, time that could be spent reaching out, and resources that could transform someone's life at the altar of self-glorification, we are not any better than the Pharisees or King Jehoakim.

The best point that Damon used to illustrate this idea was a list of "Dont's and Nevers." The first was "Never own a piece of furniture that you would not let a homeless person sit on." This is a narrow example, but the greater idea seems to be this practice of weighing the value of people vs. stuff. The reason I can't own a BMW, besides the lack of $40,000, is that if I owned it my thoughts would constantly be consumed with keeping it clean and making sure it does not get scratched. Tyler Durden had it right when he said, "the stuff you own ends up owning you."