I Am Not Ashamed of My Material Possesions

I am not ashamed of material possessions.

I am not ashamed to be a citizen of the United States.

I am not ashamed that I have three meals a day.

Everything I have was allowed to be given to me by God. 

What I choose to do with it is what matters.

I am a college student and I have an enormous amount of wealth . I am in the top 5% of the WORLD, with my yearly income. Now factor in all the support my parents give me? That puts me in the top 1% of the entire world. Remember the outrage of the impoverished in our country towards the 1% of our country? Well guess what; that same outrage could be thrown right back at me, a “poor college student.”  

We, college students, are not poor.

I do not know how many times I have seen this scenario: the pastor is collecting funds for a cause and he says, “College students I know you do not have anything to give,” and the whole church laughs in agreement. Why is this a joke? Why is it funny? Church, we have more than you realize.

Myself, and most of my friends buy new clothing, go out to eat at least once a week, go to concerts, go on road trips, go to movies, buy $4 coffee drinks, buy new apps, have state-of-the-art phones, drive decent cars, type on their laptops, and some even have iPads.

Again, I am not ashamed of material possessions. I do not throw shame onto those who have these things. That is not the point.

What I know, is that I am sick of the excess and lack of responsibility in my own heart. I have so much income to give, and very few bills to pay, and yet here I am at the end of every month with nearly nothing to give, because I have spent it all in foolish ways. I have got to stop.

I never have anything left over for the various needs that arise because I consume too much.

The Holy Spirit has convicted, me, Sarah VandaVeer, of this. I am always looking for more. Always excited for the next adventure and the next item of purchase and the next event. I am never just satisfied with what I have right now.

More more more. Gotta have it. I want that. Pin. Click. Store. Shopping Cart. Lists.

I am so sick of this life. Why is it so hard for me to wake up in the morning resting in the fact that I have as much as I already do.

So what now? What do I do with this clamp of conviction that is constricting my heart?

Repentance. 

Gosh I love how simple Jesus made it. I am sorry for what I have done, and I want to change this. 

::Change::

The largest areas where I over-consume are food and clothing. I have already started the journey towards responsible consumption of food. The other is clothing, and it started a long-long time ago. Obviously, it’s directly tied to the other. I do not feel beautiful, so I mask that with beautiful clothing. Oh how I love the attention it gives me. Nice clothing makes me feel as if I have things together. Sure I can be unhealthy and overstuffed as long as outwardly I look presentable.

(This my beautiful friend Abbi, and this is me wearing I shirt I bought because I wanted to feel beautiful. Side note: the shirt did not give me confidence, the love of my friends did.) 

False.

Sinful falsities.

So here I go, challenging myself to pare down my closet and start consuming responsibly. I am not slapping this onto anyone else’s heart. This is not your journey, this is not your conviction from the Spirit, this is mine. I am not trying to start a movement. However, I am hoping that by shining light on this dark corner of my life, you can see areas in your life that might need this same shameless light of freedom.

Stay tuned tomorrow, as I publish my closet-purging ceremony. Goodness was it difficult.

And boys reading this, I am sorry if this makes you laugh, but I know some of you are divas too. (8 striped shirts? Really?) 

Much love, 

Sarah Jean