Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Say What?...

Have you ever had a "Say What?", moment? Today was one of those days for me. Our family has been going through the RADICAL video series with Dr. David Platt. It has been life changing for all of us. Not to say that we didn't know most of this before, but this is a real, can't close our hearts to the problem, call to get off our couches and do something about it, series. Obviously, I am speaking of our response as Christians to a lost, poor and oppressed world.

Well, with this RADICAL series has come a radical lifestyle change. All of our family is on board, but we don't really know where to start. We decided to start with giving away our wants and just living with our needs, one at a time. Our cable TV is one of those "wants." Not sure if were going to rock our kids worlds by turning off TV or should I say "life source", we thought we would just check and ask some questions. We do believe that the Lord is asking us to give up what we want and sacrifice it all to him, so I called the cable company to see just what we pay to TV. One of our questions was if this was going to affect our bundle savings? We get TV, telephone, and Internet and with having all three, we get a savings. After several transfers I finally got to Rosa, she was a great help, here is why.

If we cut the TV off all together, we would loose $32 in savings. However, it would still save us $51 per month. If we cut down to just the basic cable we would only save $25 per month. Rosa gave me all sorts of scenarios and then asked "What is your purpose in all of this, you just don't want TV any more?" I took a deep breath, I was going to answer one of two ways, truth with detail, or truth without detail. I chose truth with detail. "Rosa, we want to save as much money as we can so that we can give it all to an orphanage", I said. There was a pause, then Rosa answered, "Did you know that there was another tsunami?" Well, I didn't because I don't watch TV, so I answered "No." She began again with, "I have never heard of anyone who was willing to give up something of their own, to give it to someone else who actually needed it, never. I don't even do that." Then she added this, "If it is true that you want to give this away, and I believe it is true, then on behalf of this cable company, we want to give you a savings of $41.13 per month with no adjustments to you or your TV, Internet or phone, just give it to you no strings attached." Now I was silent, "Say what?" Rosa explained, "I can't believe you would actually consider this, so this is our gift to you for 6 months. At the end of the 6 months everything will revert back to normal and you will have to decide if you want to continue with your giving and at that point decide to shut off your TV or not."

Well, as you can imagine, I couldn't believe what Rosa was saying. I just said thank you. Well truth be known, I wanted to ask if I could cut off the TV and get the $41.13 to make $90 something to give away, but didn't, I wasn't going to push it. Rosa said to me before we hung up, "Thank you for giving me a new perspective on life today. This is the way we should live."

I share this with you not to brag on us and our giving up TV, because like I said earlier, we just called to check on it, our flesh wasn't totally willing yet. But I share this with you to brag on God. Here is what I see. To God, the lost, poor, widowed, orphaned and oppressed are VERY important. He is not fooling when He lays down what He expects of us in order to be His disciple. (Luke 14:33) He is serious about our obedience as Christians. He tells us in Revelation to be hot or cold, if we are lukewarm, He will spit us out. I am bragging on a God who showed us today that He was going to provide the money we wanted to give without the sacrifice of really giving it up. He showed us that His word is true, He is so serious about the lost and poor, that He proved it to us today. Almost like saying, "Thiele family, you are toying with the idea of giving up your wants and testing the water, I am just going to show you what I think about it....Here you go! Now you know how important this is to me." He used a complete stranger moved my a heart that was debating, to change her perspective and ours. Praise God. I would like to say we all know what is going to happen in 6 months from now, I am praying that we will be held accountable when the time is near and we will cut of our TV to the glory of God.

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40

5 comments:

amyb777 said...

Woohoo! and Amen! Preach it girl! I am with you. Oh how hard it is to give up immediate pleasures for the sake of things more important in the eternal Kingdom of God! Love you friend.

amy

Tonya Brown said...

Sister, I called the cable company just yesterday to have my cable turned off in order to sponsor 2 kids in Africa. I'm wrecked and suffocating at the injustice that I have everything while others have not even their basic needs met. Father use me!

BTW, I came across your blog from a friend of a friend.. of a friend :)

Lisa said...

Watching what God is doing with you is so exciting for me ... I need to watch the rest of the videos. My heart is being drawn to do more as well ... although I am not as far in the journey as you ... I think that God is awakening His children. What was really great about this was that it gave the employee of the cable company a chance to grow as well ... and who knows who else ... as I am sure that she will retell the story of "The Phone Call" over and over again!

Love to you

Lisa

drea said...

Tonya...Paise the Lord for your obediance. I am so excited to see the Lord doing a work among his people. I pray that this continues and spreads like wildfire.

Blessings
Andrea

Cindy said...

Drea, I just read the comments and wanted to write something, mainly because the "word verification" is "sesttr", and you are my "sesttr" in Christ :)!!

I love how God IS awakening us to the needs of the world around us! What a thrill this is to be part of what He is doing!

Project Playlist