Taking God out of the equation

Today I actually pulled the car over and got out to take a picture. This doesn't even capture how awesome it looks today.

I even climbed up a giant hill. I know, I'm practically spectacular.

Please excuse the random flow of thought below...

These past few months have been eye opening in terms of the blessings we have been given. I think sometimes when you're in the trenches of life, you tend to not see all the blessings. It's also much easier to see blessings in someone else's life or when comparing your life to someone else's.

For example, our friend came to Christ about a year ago and now she is a leader and example for us. She's exposing her kids to the realities of this world and making them serve. Literally. She is going to have them volunteer at a Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless. She encourages us to do the same and to get out there and be His hands and feet. What better way to demonstrate your Christianity than helping those who are less fortunate.

Because of my friend, I think I would now say that you can sometimes learn more about faith from a new believer than a mature Christian. This is especially true with my friend as she devours everything she can to learn more and puts herself in situations to act on her faith. She has been one of the biggest blessings these past few months. It's also really nice to have a girlfriend in town to hang out with.

I caught myself saying yesterday, "maybe we should prioritize the groups we help this season" because we have been blessed enough to help out many organizations. Blessings abound in our home. I like that my church does "in-reach" during the holidays, meeting the needs of those in the church first. Our city will help out those in the community first. Of course we should help everyone we can and donate to organizations around the world, but what does it say about us if we cannot take care of those in our own communities because of it?

I read a blog post recently that talked about a wife being a financial blessing to her family by doing certain things such as shopping at thrift stores, couponing, not eating meat because beans are cheaper, and staying home to stay away from the temptation of stores. Nothing about these is inherently wrong, but something about it frustrated me and I couldn't pinpoint it until I discussed it with bf. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the ability to stay away from temptation.

We can't follow these ritualistic tenets to reduce our consumerism and overconsumption (I completely agree we have problems with it). One in particular I'm thinking of is by a Christian group that will take 7 months and help you reduce your reliance on fast-food restaurants, time spent on electronics, reduce your wardrobe to just 7 pieces (two shoes, two pants, three tops? really??? that's how I would figure it would go anyway), become more green, etc.

I will admit it was the clothes thing that put it over the top for me. Will limiting yourself this much really bring you closer to God? Or will you just resent Him because you feel you are restricting all fun from your life. Of course we should spend more time with our families and with God than on the computer. Of course we should make more of our meals at home. Of course we shouldn't buy so much junk. But why do we need some man-made guidebook when we already have the Bible? We take God out of the equation by using these "programs." We have already taken God out of everything else, can we really afford to take him out of our everyday lives and rely on something other than Him to help us succeed?