But I Like My Pens

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Every once in a while I come across a sentence or a phrase that lingers, irks, confronts, haunts. This is one of those. So I’m going to share it with you. I hope it lingers, irks, confronts, and haunts you too.

Francis Chan posted in social media, “When we get to a point where we are more concerned about our standard of living than we are about other human beings living…”

He didn’t even finish the sentence. He just left it like that. Francis Chan is a pastor. Back a decade or so, he was a pastor of one of the mega churches in California. But he left the mega church. Not because of a scandal. But because the gospel scandalized him. He realized that there were thousands of people at church every weekend, but very few disciples. Few were genuinely following Jesus. This scandalized him.

Now, Francis Chan pastors house churches with a dozen or people. And when they get to be over a dozen or so people, they plant another house church. And they are making more disciples and authentically living out what it means to be the church in those house churches than in the mega church with thousands of people.

I find his journey challenging and convicting.

And then he posts that sentence!

Dang. You see, I like my things. I don’t think I live an extravagant life, but I like my things. I have a pretty nice fountain pen collection. And I like them. And, if the truth be told, I can cut back on how often I eat out, how many pens and inks I buy…shoot. See. I like my pens!

So, I hope this phrase challenges you too so you can join me in thinking about and doing something about being even better stewards of all that God has given us than we are now.