Our family had a lovely time last night celebrating the second night of Hanukkah.  My sweet husband spent a lot of money to buy me a Le Creuset dutch oven.  I have waited for this for almost 10 years.  Every year I drop hints and hope that I get this extravagant gift.  I mentioned to Larry, this year, that this dish would do a better job frying latkes and doughnuts than anything else I have.  It was true, but my latkes are good even in my 30.00 electric skillet.

Later that evening, I shared with Larry that, while I was so excited for the gift, I felt guilty.  I am always whining about lack of funds for this or that.  The fact that I received this gift proves we are not in the dire straights that I think we are.  

Yesterday, I heard an interview on NPR about a man that was in the Japanese Internment camps.  Today, I started the morning watching silent footage of the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw Poland.  After hearing the stories of people having to pack their life into a couple suitcases, and seeing the starving mothers with their babies, how could I ever complain about the abundance I have.  My children and healthy and well fed, I am well fed and if I am unhealthy it is because I am too well fed.  After watching the footage this morning I walked into my kitchen and looked around at my prized possessions , a lime green mixer, a bright orange dutch oven, all kinds of collectible, brightly colored pottery.  I have an abundance of color in my home, I am not one for neutral tones.  Most of the struggles I have in life is because I don't know how to deal with the abundance of clothing, toys, food, unused stuff and mostly the abundance of choices I have.  The Jews in the Ghetto did not have choice, if they could afford it, they ate horse meat.  If they couldn't, they dug through the dung heap.  The families in the interment camps, here in America, the land of the free, stood in line for terrible food and lived in  horse stalls.

Larry and I have been really considering the idea of giving up "everything" and moving to an intentional  community somewhere.  Isn't it funny that others could look from the outside and think we are ridiculous for letting go of everything we have worked for.  I wonder if the Jews or Japanese, from the WW2 era, would think it was all that awful to walk away from lower-middle class life-style to live in a mansion with a few other families.  

I don't know what the next year holds for me and my family.  I did mention to Larry last night how ironic it would be to wait all of these years for an expensive dish, just to choose to give it away a few months later.  While, I can get hung up on worldly activities and things, the older I get, the more they do not fill the void.  At this time in my life I don't know if I could live my life trying to pursue a bigger house, more land, nicer stuff, exciting activities.  I don't think I could do it in good conscience ;  what a waste of time, money and resources. My husband made a point recently that everyone in America is the rich young ruler.  Even our poorest have so much available to them.  Could we walk away from our hopes and dreams to follow Yeshua?  I would say that 99% can fit him in to our current lifestyle pretty well with no sacrifice.  Will you hold up when the cares of this world choke you, will you be able to navigate the obstacles in the way of the narrow gate?  Will I?  Only time will tell.  Time that is going by terribly fast.