ReImagine

Next Tuesday we will launch our experiment for November around the value of SIMPLICITY.We will be starting with a workshop call SIMPLIFY next Tuesday night, followed by a 4-week experiment called Have2Give1. We will do some very practical things to simplify our lives and free up resources to help some of the poorest people on the planet.

You can register for this experiment here: http://simplify09.eventbrite.com

Here’s a reflection about one of our past Have2Give1 experiments:

A number of years ago I invited a group of friends into an audacious experiment. I sent out a message proposing that we each sell or give away half of our possessions and donate the profits to global poverty relief. This was, I suggested, a tangible way we might wrestle with what Jesus taught about money and stuff.  Jesus once told his disciples to “sell [their] possessions and give to the poor.” Since we weren’t quite up to that challenge we decided to start with what John the Baptist said to his followers, “if you have two coats, give one of them away.” We called our experiment Have2Give1.

Surprisingly over thirty people signed up to do this project and together we plotted how to sell the things we owned to free up resources to help the poorest people in the world. Some of our friends traveled an hour and a half each way just to be at our project meetings. We spent the next eight weeks systematically divesting of our stuff– each week collecting different items to sell, donate or recycle. One week it would be books and music, another week, clothes or household items. Everyone had a list of objects in question: “Can I keep my figurine collection? Should I auction off some of my jewelry?” People sold cars, antiques and bicycles. Many of us discovered that the items we thought were so valuable or precious were actually nearly worthless. Some of us wondered why we kept buying things we didn’t need or use, (like movies still in their packaging or sale rack clothes with the price tags attached after years in the closet). One Saturday we held a garage sale and put out a sign telling people that all proceeds would go toward Tsunami relief in Indonesia. With the leftovers we did a swap and donated the rest to a local thrift shop. Someone also took on the job of helping us figure out how to responsibly recycle the things we couldn’t sell or give away.

This flurry of activity led us to ask deeper questions about our perspectives on money and material possessions.  One night we decided it would be a good idea to share how much money we make and where that money was going. We did some further investigation into what Jesus taught about provision and wrestled with how his words offer a subversive critique of our commonly held assumptions and practices. We came up with a summary list of the qualities we were exploring: contentment, gratitude, simplicity, abundance, frugality, generosity and trust. We decided to make a public statement with what we were learning. We had a postcard printed with the following phrase written on it:

“A new way is possible
Sell your possessions and give to the poor
For where your treasure is there your heart will be also
Ask and you will receive
Seek and your will find
The secret of contentment”

On the other side of the postcard was a photograph of a hand holding a coin. We glued 3,000 nickels to those cards and on black Friday morning, (the day after thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S.), we handed them out to passersby at Union Square, a popular shopping district in San Francisco. In the midst of people scurrying to do their gift buying and among the homeless begging for change, we shouted, “Spare change, I’ve got some spare change, please have some spare change!”  Some people brushed past us. Some people refused. And, other people stopped curiously to ask us why we were giving away money for free. “Because we think there is another way to live–open-handed, trusting and generous,” we said.

Through Have2Give1 thousands of dollars were redistributed and we each discovered more simplicity and less clutter. It proved to be the beginning of a continuing series of “Jesus Dojo” experiments. We were all surprised at the depth of intimacy we felt with the diverse group of people we barely knew when the started.  Working on an intensive project seemed to produced an accelerated sense of intimacy and connection. For many of us, these experiments set a chain of events in motion that continue to shape the direction of our lives.   Some people sold their cars, quit their jobs and relocated to impoverished communities. Others have gotten out of debt, reconciled with their families, overcome addictions or discovered deep inner healing. Many of us experienced a new level of transparency, community, intimacy and trust. There have been many firsts: “The first time I shared a meal with a homeless person; The first time I ever wrote a poem, the first time I told anyone about my greatest wound.”  Gradually we recognized that this kind of transformation is to be expected when we allow Jesus to be our Rabbi.  But what surprised us the most was how eager people were to take action. It was as if they had just been waiting for someone to ask.

Jesus said that his kind of life, a way of revolutionary love, is possible for anyone who will surrender to his way. For years I’d been asking, “How can I be about making a life in the way of Jesus?”  In conversations with the people who eventually became part of Have2Give1 I found myself saying, “its like what we need is a… Jesus Dojo– a space where we can work out the teachings of Jesus together in real life.