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