Price Check on Aisle 3

My favorite coffee drink: $4.30



Water Filters for fresh, clean water in a third world home: $55-$100


My favorite salad at Panera: $7


A weeks’ worth of hot meals in a third world country: $7


Life-saving food (rice, corn, beans, soy meal, salt, and cooking oil )in a third world country: $35


Chicken (providing eggs and income for a third world family): $16


A paperback book on the bestsellers list: $12


Third World Education supplies (school fees, uniforms, books and other resources they need to get an education): $15-$30


I have a confession to make. I’m selfish. Yep, you read that right. I’m selfish. Whew, every time I say that it becomes easier and easier to confess. And God doesn’t let me get away with judging others for the issues I also struggle with. He always makes me struggle through them first before he allows me to speak to others. On this particular issue (okay truthfully on any issue!) I am not “there”, I have not arrived at any point of perfection but God really drove it home with me yesterday. I knew I had to just go there with everyone else now instead of later after he made me struggle through it.

Maybe we can work through it together.

The lesson was loud in clear through an employee’s order of a gourmet sandwich shop order. I am not against ordering from the gourmet sandwich shop but what I realized was this particular individual orders from this shop on average 3 times a week out of a 5 day work week. At a minimum of $7.50 an order they are spending $22.50 a week on food, which is a minimum of $90 a month. At first I thought, “Holy smokes if I ever hear them complain about their finances I am going to be hard pressed to hold my tongue!” And then I went a step further in my thoughts. “If I ever hear this person say they would love to sponsor a Compassion child but can’t afford it I will go through the roof!” I started thinking about all the things they could do with $90 or even half that!

Did I really think God was going to let me get away with thinking about someone else for very long?

As the day wore on my thoughts turned from the co-worker to my own spending habits. Oy. I’m selfish. There. I said it again. I go in phases with my spending. Sometimes it’s always coffee out, sometimes it’s Panera Bread – which I LOVE and is usually my go-to for when I have to grab something to eat and I’m out and about, most recently it has been paperback books. Yes, I know there are these wonderful free-to-me buildings called libraries where I can check out tons of books and not spend any money. I know this. But I’m weird about books. I like to own them. That’s the ideal that I need to really just get over. Paperbacks run about $12 depending on where you get them, the size of them and how new or old they are. But that’s a decent average. Since I’m confessing how selfish I am I will go even further in my confessions and confess that over the past 9 months I have probably spent $250, at least, on books. ACK! Do you know how many months of school fees and school supplies that would buy for a child in any third world country? Or it shares in the cost of building a school in Pakistan or Afghanistan or another country where education is a treat rather than a given. I could have put the $250 toward a child’s education rather than waste it on my enjoyment. Oh, I am so selfish. Shoot. I can, through Compassion International, gift my child’s family $300 once a year. And I wasted it on paperback books. See? I’m selfish!


What if I put $12 in a jar every time I was tempted to purchase a book rather than check it out from the library? And what if, in addition to that, I cut down on having my favorite coffee drink four times a month and went down to two times a month and put the other two times worth of money in the jar also? And, going even further, what if I created my own salad to love and instead donated the money I save from not eating at Panera’s so often to that jar? What may seem and even look like a small amount transforms into a huge amount when sent to a third world country! Many Haitians (for example) live on $2.00 (USD) a day. My favorite coffee drink is $4.30. That is a little over two days worth income for many. But I’m guilty of thinking, “Oh, it’s JUST $4.00.” What a slap in the face to those who look at $4.00 as food for two days. Do you see how God isn’t going to let me get away with judging anyone?!? I can’t think the things I thought about my co-worker when I’m wallowing in the issue myself!


Now don’t think I’m going totally radical. I’m still going to get my favorite coffee drink, I’m still going to hang out at Panera from time to time and I’m still going to buy a paperback or two. But God is asking me to be more mindful, to be a better steward, to consider the “least of these” before I consider myself and my wants. I have very few needs and quite a few wants. If my heart is going to mirror God’s then my wants list needs an overhaul.  I need to begin to want education for kids more than I want a paperback or I need to begin to want clean water for people more than I want the coffee or I need to begin to want 3 meals a day for people more than I want the salad I love at Panera.


I don’t know where you are at with this issue, my guess is I’m not alone in it because we live in a nation that is blessed and we are hardly ever confronted with these kinds of issues. We only become confronted with them when we remove ourselves from the comfort of the USA and enter into the culture of a third world country and our eyes, ears, and hearts see what true need is. And sometimes, as in my case apparently, in takes a year or two for the confrontation to hit the target of the heart! I’m learning, however, not to despise the timing of the target finally being hit. God uses the timing, as everything else, for his good.


Now that God has done a price check on my heart I have a responsibility to respond. I’m sure I will take a few steps backwards as I move forward but God’s grace will be there with me every step of the way as I navigate the aisles and fill my cart with what really will make a difference for eternity.



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