a drop of water

I remember a lot of teaching about the “3 R’s” in elementary school.  We needed to reduce, reuse and recycle so that we wouldn’t run out of fossil fuels that our earth has limited amounts of.  Now, we have recycling bins accompanying our trash cans on the curbside or at our apartment complexes.  It is almost too convenient, and I still see lots of trash in the trash can that could be put in the recycling bin :(  I guess people still do not have any motivation to recycle.  What if they were offered money to recycle? (I realize that this brings up a number of issues, but my point is that there are already ways to get paid to recycle, with a little effort).

I was looking for drop off locations for glass bottles and aluminum cans that will pay you for recycling.  I was able to find this 2008/2009 San Diego Recycling Guide on this San Diego City website.  It is pretty helpful in learning about where the drop off locations are and what they will pay you to recycle.  Some drop off locations apparently will buy back not only glass, and aluminum but scrap cardboard, newspaper, plastic and a few other items.  Some have even made a full time job out of recycling.

Executive Members at Costco can now receive a convenient 15% off Labor and Parts at authorized car dealerships.  You can find the dealership closest to you by following the link here.  Depending on how much you typically spend on car repairs each year and whether or not you would even consider taking your car to be serviced at a dealership, the 15% off benefit could cover the cost of the Executive Membership at Costco.  There is also special Costco Member pricing at authorized dealerships which often offer members sub-invoice prices for new vehicles, bypassing all the car sales bargaining.

These benefits are great already, but they are not even considering the potential 2% cash back on Costco purchases (1% more than the base membership), 3% back for Costco Gas, and 2% back on travel and restaurant expenses.

The annual cashback rewards are mailed to you in the form of gift certificates, which you can conveniently exchange directly for cash in store.  This is very convenient because it does not force you to spend your reward at the store of origin, like many reward systems limit you to.  Another lesser known rumor is that Costco has the practice of refunding members the executive membership fee if their pruchasing total did not warrant the premium.  (I personally have not had the opportunity to experience this though.)

One of the critiques of Costco is that the portions are too big for the smaller household. I suggest coordinating with other small households and splitting the Costco portions.  This way, you aren’t tempted to eat larger portions just to finish something, or forced to throw away large amounts of food because they have gone bad, etc.

One of my favorite passages is Micah 6:8, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  I recently discovered the context of the passage, where God presents his case against Israel, and Israel responds.

God reminds Israel of what he has done for them. He mentions a few characters and events:

• Slavery in Egypt - God sent Moses to lead Israel out of their lives as slaves in Egypt.
• Balak king of Moab - Was preparing to stand in Israel’s way and drive them out of the country.
• Balaam son of Beor - Was called by Balak to put a curse on Israel, but God told Balaam no.  (Same Balaam who had his donkey speak to him)
• Journey from Shittim to Gilgal - This was the parting of the Jordan River by Joshua, which parallels the parting of the Red Sea by Moses, earlier.

Next Israel responds with a few ideas to pay for their sins: burnt offerings, one year old calves, thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, and even their firstborn children. All of these were very costly sacrifices, some instituted by ceremonial law, but were impractical and some wicked (as Matthew Henry states).  God then tells Israel, that he has already said what he requires of them.

God asked them to act justly.  The verb act (or to do in other translations) implies to make.  God asked them to love mercy.  The love here is the same love that God has for his people. Go asked them to walk humbly with Him.  One of the implications of this verb to walk, implies departing from something.  God asked them to be just in their actions, to love mercy as He loves his people, and to walk away from their sin nature, as they follow Him.

All of these instructions ultimately ask us to offer ourselves to God and directly address the last bastions of our old self.  It is easier to give God things, actions, etc. than to give God ourselves.  Acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with Him is impossible without us letting God permeate our thoughts, actions, and wills. Instead of offering God myself, I think that I often try and substitute something that I’ve assigned great worth to, similar to the Israel’s initial offering of rams and rivers of oil.  I offer up my success or hopes for success, my “big” ideas for the Kingdom; offerings that I think are close to or worthy of what God has already done for me, when in reality they are often just clanging symbols.

Dallas Willard, in his exposition of the parable of the Widow’s offering (Luke 21:1-4, Mark 12:41-44) said “It was of greater value, more of value was done with the widows pennies, than with the large gift of the others.  The context of the kingdom among us transforms the respective actions.   Little is much, we say, when God is in it.  And so it is, really.”  The worth is not in the pennies, but what the pennies symbolize; a transformation of the woman’s heart. This is to say, that often we can make offerings as a response to what God has done in our lives that have “big” outward worth and end up missing the inward surrender to God that allows Him to renovate our heart, mind and soul so that we can become the people who act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Him.

In a letter to his mother to console her on the death of his father, he wrote,

“Three years have gone and every trifle relating to father is still alive as ever inside me.  I am so certain my love, that we will see him again in an unexpected but completely natural heaven, in a realm that all is radiance and delight.  He will come towards us in our shared bright eternity, slightly raising his shoulders as he used to do, and we will kiss the birth mark on his hand without surprise. You must live in expectation of that tender hour my love, and never give in to the temptation of despair. Everything will return.”

-Vladimir Nabokov

My family and I visited the grave sites of both my mother’s and father’s parents this Christmas.  It has been almost six years since my last grandmother passed away.  I have a few memories stored away of my grandparents, their body language, the feeling of their wrinkly old hands holding mine, maybe a faint echo of a their voices. Deitrich Bonhoffer noted as he was led to his sentencing, “For you it is the end, but for me, it is the beginning of life.”

Nabokov bolsters his mothers countenance against despair by painting a beautiful vision of what Heaven holds.   It is a place where we will be reunited with those whom we have loved so much, restored to their former selves.  Nabakov lives his life not in despair of what he has lost in his father’s death, but in the life and glory of being reunited with his father someday.

Life here on earth is a great gift, and its end opens a door to something much greater in Heaven. I am excited to hold my grandparents hands again someday, to hear their voices in strength and clarity, to see their body language unhindered by age and ailment.  I want to live under the vision so eloquently painted by Nabokov, where death is just the next step in life in Christ.

A few weeks ago at small group we covered the chapter on Psalm 128 that focused on Happiness in Eugene Peterson’s, The Long Obedience in the Same Direction. James reminded us that God is relentlessly trying to bless us.  The idea that God wants to bless us seems so matter-of-fact; it is a truth that we hold as a foundation of our faith.  But there is often a disconnect between that idea and our heart’s reaction to the circumstances life throws at us.  How is God blessing us when all of our friends have passed away and our family lives far away and we have our own health problems?  How is God blessing us when our baby is still born? How is God blessing us when natural disaster destroys our sustenance and livihoods?  I don’t know. I can only feebily attempt to understand the magnitude of what these circumstances might feel like.

But I do know that in each of these circumstances, there is the opportunity to look for God’s presence and relentless blessing.  Maybe that is the blessing itself, the fact that in all of those circumstances, I am not alone, We are not alone, You are not alone.  God is with us, and that is the greatest blessing we could ever receive.  God says he will never leave us, nor forsake us as we hold fast to the plan and promise that he as given us.  Hebrews 13:5 recounts how Moses reminds Israel and Joshua that God has gone before them and will never leave them in the face of unsurmountable obstacles to His promise.

In every sorrow and joy, hardship and encouragement, happiness and frustration that life throws at us, we as christians have the opportunity to acknowledge and proclaim the relentless blessing of God because he is present.