Putting it into perspective!

This past month our church had the privilege of this young man from Zimbabwe being here for a few weeks. His name is Cannon and he is a Pastor near the Zambeze River in Zimbabwe. Cannon had never left Africa, never flew on a plane and yet journeyed all the way to Borger Tx to spend time with us! How awesome!!!

While Cannon was here, our Pastor and other staff tried to ensure that he got to experience as many different aspects of American and Texas life as possible. In this picture, he is in his Cowboy Duds that were loaned to him and attending our Horsemanship Clinic by Ken McNabb that our church hosted. We thoroughly enjoyed Cannon being here and yes, I do hope to go to see him in Zimbabwe!!!

There are many stories I could share about Cannon's time here - however, two stand out completely above the rest and in a way they are related to one another. Our church librarian asked Cannon what surprised him the most about coming to America - his response? "How closely it really is like what we see on TV. We thought that was just make believe. I never thought everyone had a car, a house, three meals a day, lots of clothes. I assumed it wasn't near this wealthy." WOW! I complain about the car I have, the home I live in, the clothes that are getting old, etc and here is a young man that couldn't believe the wealth I had!

The second story is even more sobering. The day before Cannon left, our Pastor had a conversation with Cannon about the money had to go home with. Remember, Cannon had only flown out here and that was with our pastor and team sort of with him (different flights, same airports). While Cannon was here, many of our members blessed him with tangible and monetary gifts. So - our pastor wanted to make sure that Cannon knew to hide the money, how to pack, ect. Out of curiosity Pastor asked Cannon "How much money do you have to take home?" Cannon's reply - "I have $1462 - honestly more than I have ever had in my whole life, much less at one time." Pastor then continued "Cannon, I know that we have paid all your meals and everything while you were here, did you have any expenses?" Cannon, "I had one expense." Pastor, "Cannon, I am curious. What was the ONE thing that you spent money on during your time in America?"

Cannon's response, "I gave 10% of what I was given to the church."

WOW....here is a man who never had this amount of money in his life, the money he does have will literally help feed his family for a year or more and yet his ONE EXPENSE - tithing to the Lord! He has two kids, a wife, mom, etc - he could have bought some souveneirs, etc and yet he tithes. No one would have expected him to - the money was a gift with no expectations.

After hearing this - I was forced to think about the fact that our income in one month is a great deal more than the amount Cannon had and yet I struggle to give God His 10%. I spend money on a lot of things that really aren't important or necessities and I complain that I just can't afford to tithe. It truly is about keeping our perspective.

Our Pastor's message on Wed hit me hard. He talked about how EVERYTHING we have including life itself is a gift. We don't deserve the lifestyle we have any more than Cannon does - yet he lives in a hut, has no car, limited food and clothes. We are blessed! Pastor ended with this statement:

"Our economy is based on desire, the Kingdom of Heaven is based on contentment. Is it any wonder then that our economy is messed up?"

Our priorities and perspective are so screwed and mixed up. We focus on what we DON'T have instead of what we DO have. We complain about giving just 10% of what GOD has given us. We argue about how funds are spent in church buildings, programs, ministries, etc - when there are churches across the World that have no building, no program and yet they are ABOUNDING in ministry...

What's your perspective and where are your priorities? Mine are lacking but I am working on getting them back where they need to be!!!