Hope Lives...a challenging read so far!

I started reading a book that I had gotten awhile ago titled Hope Lives. It was written by Amber Van Schooneveld. It is a book with daily readings and now has a kit for churches to walk through over the course of 5 weeks which was written by Rick Olmstead, pastor of the Fort Collins Vineyard.

While I expected it to be challenging, I didn’t expect these words within the first day’s reading. Here is what the author writes,

“Sure, I grew up pinching pennies, but I was always well-fed; it was always and expectation that I would go to college, get a good job with health benefits, buy a house. Far from the despair reigning in certain pockets of the world, my industrialized world and I are thriving. We have more material wealth than any other generation in history. I drive down the street and see huge hospitals and hulking high schools; I see homes squatting like hotels; I see megacorps and megamalls and megachurches. My church buddies and I are thriving, too - we have our many church meetings, our building campaigns, our community outreaches playing Frisbee at the park with Starbucks afterward.

Put simply, we are prospering. But never able to leave well enough alone, I still can’t help but wonder, as I sip Starbucks on an easy Sunday afternoon: Is this pleasing God? Is this his vision of what his world should look like?”

I guess that’s the question that Christy and I first started asking a while ago - “is the way we’re living pleasing God?” I believe that’s a question God desires us to be asking - “Does my current lifestyle bring You pleasure, or is my current lifestyle designed to bring pleasure to myself? I love the fact that this author started asking that question. May all of us find ourselves in that same spot of asking the question, “Is this pleasing God?” as we look at every area of our lives, habits, churches and culture - especially as we remember God’s heart for the poor as we find ourselves surrounded by affluence.

This question is one that God answers. The author goes on to share Isaiah 58. When you get a chance, check it out, and may God use it to challenge each of us in what is pleasing to Him.