Fall is here!! I LOVE this time of year. I am not big on cold weather, but the cool mornings and warm afternoons are just about perfect to me. I do very much enjoy the summer months too, but there is just something about fall that make me feel so much like a kid again.
Along with the start of the fall, we started a new book as a whole church, "Radical" by David Platt. It has been a very exciting journey for Colin and me to read through this book. It has stirred up things in our hearts that will forever change the way we think and view the world. I won't go into too much about the book because that is not was I wanted to write about today, but I will touch on one of the chapters he wrote and how we are letting it change our life.
Before I start though, I want to state that I am very proud to live in America. Very. I know that I am so blessed to have been born in this great country and I am also very aware of all the sacrifices that were made in order for me to have such freedom. Also, keep in mind that these things I will write about are just personal convictions that both Colin and I feel effect our lives. You may not agree and you have every right. But if there is one thing I have learned its that God will convict each person as he sees fit.
Now, in order to get the full effect of the book you just need to read it! But I am going to jump to chapter 6. It is titled "How Much is Enough". I feel like I am living in a world of excess. We can jumbo size, biggie size, king size and super size any meal that we can get our hands on! And I am guilty of always getting more than I need on a regular basis. Chapter 6 deals with how "wealthy" Colin and I are as we live in a world that is stricken with poverty. One of the staggering numbers that Platt puts down on paper is that in the time that it takes for me to sit through a church service, close to 1000 children die from starvation. 1000!! Ok, now I know that it is just a number, so think of it this way - I went to a school were there were 450 +/- in grades k through 12 --- in thirty minutes all those children would be gone.
Hunger and starvation are two things that I have never known. Again I thank the Lord for allowing me to be born in such a great country where I live among the wealthiest. But I had to wonder, "What would it be like?" In most third world countries people can feed their families for $2.00 a day. Colin looked up a TIME article where it showed one American family of 4 that spent close to $350.00 a week on just food! Now it would take that same family that was living on $2.00 a day three years to spend that much money on food.
As Colin read through the chapter he turned to me and said, "I wonder if I could live on just $2.00 a day worth of food for 30 days?" To which I replied, "I wonder if we both could live on $2.00 a day?" We want to do this so we can have some understanding as to what it is like to live on less. To "walk a mile in someone elses shoes" type thing. We might have to go hungry for a meal or two...we might figure out a way to make it the full 30 days. Keep in mind that as we attempt to get by on less, it is only because we have been blessed with so much that we are in a place where we can conduct this social experiment. The point is to experience, if even a tiny bit, what it is like to have to go without or to have to live on less than a dollar a day per person. We are not trying to see how frugal we can get or to see how low our food bill can get and then pat ourselves on the back because we saved so much money. Although, saving money and eating less are things that everyone in America should probably practice anyway. We get to do this voluntarily, but over 3 billion of the world's population are forced to survive on a dollar a day - and that dollar probably includes a lot more than just food. We might experience slight discomfort because we have to cut a few things out of our diet or cut back on portions whereas in many parts of the world it is survival, maintenance, and just trying to reduce the hunger pangs that never seem to go away.
Our current grocery bill runs anywhere between $200.00 and month to $250.00. We cut out most junk foods and started buying the house brands and found that we were saving a bunch of money and we weren't giving up quality. So now we are faced with another challenge. How do we cut back to even less when we have already cut out so much? Well, you get creative!
Colin took our shopping list and came back with what we hope is 30 days worth of food, and he spent about $110.00 total. We are only eating three meals a day, which means no snacks! Also we are only having one serving of whatever our meal is. No seconds or thirds. I make homemade bread that cost only pennies to make and we eat that with every meal as well.
Our first week we ate three meals a day for 7 days and only used $12.00 worth of food. I have yet to sit down and figure out how much this last 7 days has cost us, but I am going to guess that we are sitting around the same amount. Once I was able to figure out how much each item cost and about how much each meal cost to make, it is pretty easy to stay under the set goal.
This whole experience has really started to open our eyes and our minds.
(To be continued.....)
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