Change of Plans ...

Well Friends, Keeping up the Blog hasn't been as easy as I once naively thought it would be.  Thanks for your patience as I try to keep up and we are so blessed to know that you are journeying with us.

We had hoped to leave Saskatoon this past Monday for Kansas City, but of course the Lord had other plans for us.  We woke up Sunday morning to the sad news that Shayne's sister and her husband had arrived home late saturday night in La Loche to find that their house had been broken into.  The people that broke in had thrashed everything, left fridges and freezers wide open, and had stolen a lot of their valuables and electronics.  When we received the news we knew that our departure was going to have to be postponed.  There was only one thing to be done, we dropped everything and drove up to La Loche to help them get everything cleaned up and organized and to just love and support them through this hard time.

We had sort of a big "Free Sale" here on wednesday.  By "Free Sale" I mean that since the place was trashed anyway we rounded up everything that could be sold garage sale style, and placed it outside in the parking lot of the church and let people help themselves for free.  It was so cool to see Jon and Sherrie hurt and shaken up as they were from the break in, responding in Love to the people of La Loche and giving stuff away that could easily have fetched a good price.  The smiles and joy on peoples faces as they walked away with clothes, shoes, toys, snow shoes, chop saw, and loads of other stuff that was just gathering dust and could be put to good use by others.

That leads me to something I've been learning lately about Worldliness and Prosperity.  Luke 12:16-21 tells us of a rich man who in good times, times of blessing and prosperity was overcome with covetousness.  He had so much stuff he had to upgrade his living situation to accommodate it all.  The rich man believed his stuff made him rich.  That was why he hoarded, stashed, and stockpiled.  Stockpiling is when we accumulate stuff and selfishly shelter it from others, so we never fear being without it.  Like the rich man, we want to "build and store, build and store"  without sufficient consideration for the purpose of our prosperity.  We accumulate more than we need only to become blind and bloated by our blessing.

      Can you relate?
      I can.

Prosperity when not handled carefully can tempt our laziness.  It lulls us away from dependance upon the Lord.  Affluence draws me toward passivity.  Its a daily battle for dependance upon God versus dependance upon my own strength.  Prosperity can be so dangerous because of its tendency to foster a false sense of security.

Don't be like the rich man who measured wealth by what was in his barns.  Measure wealth the way God measures it, by whats in your heart.  Try letting go of some of those things you don't need but have been just hanging on to.  Have a big "Free Sale".  You'll blow your neighbourhoods mind and I'm sure it'll make Jesus smile.

Thanks for Journeying with us..
The Schafer Family