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This past Wednesday evening we had an awesome youth group meeting. We had a fun time talking about questions they had about God, church, faith, religion, etc… One question a student had for me was, “is it sinful to want to be rich and successful?” My initial response back to that (and every single question they asked) was, “what do you think?” This led to lively discussions from the group with many voicing their opinion!
The conversation we had reminded me of the NOOMA video titled “Rich” by Rob Bell. In this video, Rob Bell talks a lot about how truly and incredibly blessed we are as Americans, how we are blessed with an incredible abundance compared to many other places in the world. He gives statistics like only 8% of the world owns a car, over a billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water, and Americans spend about as much money on ice cream as it would take to feed the world. Inevitably these statistics will probably make you feel guilty much like they do me, but his intentions aren’t that, it's to point out how incredibly blessed we are. Being blessed in such a way, we are incredibly “Rich.” And in first Timothy, it says:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
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