The WOW Factor

Ah, stewardship season. My favorite time of the year. Not most people's because we've been taught that stewardship is about guilt and deprivation. It's not. It's about extravagance and generosity.

In last Sunday's sermon I talked about the fulfillment curve, a concept from the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. I also wanted to talk about the WOW factor, from The Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyzcyn, but I didn't have time. So I'll share it with you.

Amy and her husband Jim had six children. They also had a goal of buying an old farm house on Jim's salary while Amy stayed home with the kids. They learned some excellent money-saving strategies, hence Amy's Tightwad Gazette newsletter, which is now a book (actually three of them). One principal they practiced with their kids was the WOW factor.

Amy often bought her kid's clothes at garage sales. One year she asked her daughter Jamie if she needed new boots. She didn't. But later on the in the season she wanted green L.L. Bean style boots like her classmates. Before hitting the stores, they went to their church's thrift shop. Miracle upon miracle, she found the exact boots she wanted, only they were plum colored instead of green. Amy bought them anyway, and then at home talked to her daughter about them.

"These boots are almost exactly what you want. Do you think we should spend $25 to buy new boots for you?"

"Mmmmoooommm! I didn't say 'new,' I said 'green'!"

"Okay, plum-colored boots cost .25 cents and green boots cost $25. Are green boots a hundred times better than plum-colored ones?"

She admitted they weren't and quite contentedly wore the plum-colored boots for the rest of the winter.

That would never work with my child, you say. Perhaps not, but maybe because we haven't learned how to use that principal with ourselves. When we go to buy something, we can ask ourselves will the more expensive version give us that much more satisfaction?

Say you were deciding between a $500 camping trip and a $5000 cruise. The camping trip, on a scale of 1 to 10, would be a five. So that's $100/wow. The cruise would be a 10, which is $500/wow. Would you enjoy the cruise five times more than the camping trip? And what if you spent that $4500 you didn't spend on the cruise on other things that had a higher wow factor? You might end up with 40, 50, or more wows for the same 10 wows you spent on the cruise.

Stewardship is about using the resources that God has given us to the best of our ability. One way I do that is to give each purchase the wow test.

Passing the Peace

Deanna, JeNel, Bill and I led worship at the Golden Age Nursing Home today. Later today, Nancy, Jim and I are going to take communion to two of our members who live in Assisted Living. I don't do a very good job scheduling those things, but once I'm there, I love it.

My favorite part of the service is "passing the peace." When we do that in a regular worship service, it's often kind of a surface thing, a casual greeting, a handshake. But when I do it at the nursing home, I touch someone, lightly on the shoulder or the hand, I look into their eyes, and I say, "The peace of Christ be with you." I go to every person there, whether they're asleep or not, whether they understand or not.

Maybe it's like Jesus blessing the children.

Something happens when we lay a hand on someone, and ask God to bless them. Something happens when we say, "The peace of Christ be with you," and mean it.

Not only are they blessed, but I am, too.

Are You Content?

Last night our small group met to discuss the third week of Adam Hamilton's study, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. We talked about "cultivating contentment." We were asked "What things in your life are you discontent with? What things in your life are you content with?"

I'm very content with parts of my life. I love my husband and we have a wonderful marriage. I'm very close with my family and friends. My congregation and I are a great match, and I'm nourished and challenged by my job. And my two cats are starting to get along with each other.

Of course there are parts of my life I'm not satisfied with:  eating habits, exercise, getting things done, and my prayer life.

But during the discussion, I realized that even though I am content, I don't feel content much of the time. Two weeks ago we had an incredible worship service. We had five children in Sunday school and seven who came down for the children's sermon (for our small church those are fantastic numbers). The music was powerful and moving. The children's sermon was lively and fun, and nailed the point I was trying to make (to both the kids and the adults). The sermon was good. It was one of those worship services where you feel the Spirit moving.

I enjoyed it, yes. But shortly afterward I started focusing on how frazzled I was. Trying to do too many things and some of them not working right. Not enough time between Sunday school and worship. Not able to be fully present with the people in front of me. And then I jumped into the new week without so much as a backward glance.

The reason I don't feel more content is because I don't pause long enough to think about the good things that just happened. What if I spent even five minutes on Sunday afternoon reflecting with God about the service? What if I journaled for a few minutes, painting a picture of the gifts I had received that morning? What if I called my mom or emailed my friend Linda and shared with them what had happened?

I'd like to start doing the examen. Every night, or every week, or whenever you choose, light a candle to acknowledge God's presence, and ask yourself two questions:  1) For what moment today am I most grateful? 2) For what moment today am I least grateful? The book Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life explains the examen in more detail.

So here I go. For what moment today am I most grateful? Thinking about my sermon for Sunday enough that I have the kernel of what it will be about. And since I want to feel contentment, I'm not going to do the second half.

Now for five minutes, I'm going to feel content by thinking about all the things I'm most grateful for.