Aj Schwanz

Today marks my experiment of being (more – hopefully) intentional in:

• Worshiping fully
• Spending less
• Giving more
• Loving all

Boy howdy, I don’t think I did all that well.  Today looked like any normal day:  family up, dressed, fed; dropping people off at their locations; errands and their aftermath; picking up people; feeding, feeding, and more feeding; managing quiet times (not so much); more feeding; cleaning up from feeding; cleaning up from the day; counting the minutes until I can go to bed.

Before bed I was listening to a podcast from Woodland Hills.  The pastor spoke on breaking the generation sin involved in the cycle of poverty.  He said that we are rich because we don’t have to worry about where our food will come from for the next meal.  And here I was, mildly worried because we were down to two slices of bread and thawing milk from the freezer — the freezer that’s packed to the gills with veggies and fruit and butter and freezer meals, etc.  My cupboards have staples of beans (a half dozen kinds) along with other grains and dried fruits.  Flour, sugar, jello (so.much.jello), cereals, soda:  we have more than enough, and yet I found myself anxious, wondering what to feed the boys when they couldn’t have their pb’n'j.

When I have too much, I am taking from others who don’t have enough.

And goodness, it takes a lot of time managing all that stuff:  shopping, unloading groceries, food prep, making sure food doesn’t go bad or stale, eating, etc.  Hello, Israelite taking too much manna!

Our recent community newsletter (it’s nice living in a town that’s small enough to have a newsletter) noted that the local food pantry is in need of goods.  Also, a number of friends in crisis seem to be in need of some freezer meals.  Perhaps that’s a way I’m being led to give more …