What Can I Afford?

It’s hard for many people today to relate to their grandparent’s stories – how difficult it was during the Great Depression, the ingenious ways they came up with to earn a little money, how they made use of everything and threw almost nothing away (and, of course, how far they had to walk to the school bus :).

I especially notice it in the music… Old-time gospel songs, even songs from slavery days, were penned and sung by people going through hard times and full of the longing for better days. Songs like, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Everybody Will Be Happy Over There,” “It Will Be Worth It All.” They celebrated the time when all wrongs will be made right, and rejoiced that one day everyone will finally have enough of all they want and need, and abundantly more beside. And because of that confidence, they could afford to wait.

Today there are a few notable songs about heaven, but mostly we sing about loving God and living for Him here and now. Maybe we have it comfortable enough here that we don’t think of there that much… or maybe it seems wrong to serve God now for what we’re going to get out of it in the future.

But even Christ endured the cross and despised its shame for the joy set before him (Heb. 12:2), so I think it’s okay to find strength for today by looking ahead to better times. Particularly when, like the Corinthians, we’re struggling with situations where we’re being taken advantage of, when we want to retaliate, when in the eyes of the world we have every “right” to assert our rights to our personal benefit. That’s the time to look ahead and to ask ourselves,

”What can I afford here?” Can I afford to lose a brother or sister in Christ? Can I afford to smear the church’s name? Can I afford to disappoint Christ and to disillusion watching unbelievers? Can I really afford to win my rights in this case?

A. W. Tozer used to say, “We will have all eternity to be happy. We can afford to wait.” We can endure the injustice or the inequality or the just plain unfairness of it all – for the joy set before us. We can let somebody else get there first, have the bigger piece, even take some of ours – for the joy set before us.

We can afford to wait .

P.S. To enjoy some of those good ole gospel songs, come to FAC's Gospel Celebration III on June 1!