Is Selling Everything Necessary?

Do you ever read books and decide you need to change something about your life?

Perhaps some of you really did kiss dating goodbye after reading Josh Harrison's hit novel. Perhaps some of you got a totally new outlook on the Holy Trinity if you read The Shack. Maybe one of you decided to go be incredibly active in homeless shelters when you stumbled upon Same Kind of Different as Me, or maybe you decided to sponsor a child or national missionary after reading Revolution in World Missions. Or, quite possibly, Forgotten God caused you to remember the third party of the Trilogy that often gets forgotten and, as a result, you invited the Holy Spirit into your life in a completely new way.

I love the way books challenge us, move us, inspire us and bring us to new understandings. What I don't like is the way that we tend to revere certain books or authors as authority.

A friend sent me Irresistible Revolution a few years back, and it was a book I couldn't put down. This man, Shane Claiborne was living a radical life for Jesus in a way that I only dreamed of. He was challenging and cutting edge- he was following Christ. And if he was following Christ and it looked drastically different from everything I was doing, what did that mean I was doing? I felt convicted.

I began to ask myself if I would sell everything I have and give it to the poor. Could I be different than the rich young ruler in Scripture? Could I be found faithful?

I was in a place in life where selling everything I had and giving away all my money was a significant sacrifice--especially just a few years out of being a poor college student who had been completely dependent on her parents. Could I give everything up? Would I? I felt I needed to prove my devotion to the Lord and this was the only way I could do it.

I didn't end up doing it.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realized why I felt okay about not going through with it. I randomly came upon a 'verse of the day' somewhere and saw this:

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

It's part of this passage that we tend to gloss over a lot because we're so used to hearing it. It's the first part of the loooove chapter. 1 Corinthians 13.

Giving all I possess to the poor needs to be more than just an action, it needs to be more than just this thing that I do to be that 'good' Christian I spoke of yesterday. It's a matter of the heart.  If I gave it all away simply for the sake of giving it away, I've gained nothing. I've missed the point.

And this is where books often get us into trouble. We forget to go back to Scripture. We think something sounds good, or that he argued that point well, or that sometimes it's even too far above us to comprehend what that person is actually talking about--so we think they must just know what they're talking about.

We are far too easily convinced.

Don't get me wrong- I love reading and I think there's SO much to gain from the world of literature, but I think there's something to be cautious of, too. Just because something sounds good or sounds right doesn't mean that it is. Just because something sounds good or right doesn't mean that it's what you need to do as you follow Christ. Instead of comparing our walks to how another's might seem, it might be good for us to let our journey with Jesus be our journey.

Before you readily accept the things offered in a good presentation, make sure it's true. Even if you trust the source, no one is infallible- and we're a fool to think otherwise. 

Test everything. Hold on to the good.

And may we be changed, ultimately, by the word of God. 

for the word of God is alive and active. sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

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