It was my last day in Bangkok. I cleaned up the condo and packed the rest of my luggage and headed over to the BTS to meet my sister and mom at the BKK airport. I got there around 12:45 m which happened to be late but it worked out because their flight was slightly delayed and they had to go through customs. We were having issues trying to contact each other, and it was somewhat stressful trying to connect since we had to promptly leave to the DMK airport where our flight was heading out from. We had a short window to make it over there to make our trip. Fortunately, everything worked out fine and we were able to make it.
It was really good seeing my sister and mom. It’s been about two months that I haven’t really seen family and friends so this was a good change. The first portion of my trip was about solo time and taking time away to process, think, and work alone. The second half of my trip is going to be with friends and family. It’ll be a good change of pace especially since I’ve started to feel the loneliness of being in a country without friends and family.
A little side ah-hah moment, but it just hit me what technology has allowed us to do. My sister and mom were just in America and overnight they are not in the same country as I am. What’s also mind-blowing is that we’ve never had it so easy to connect with people in person as long as you give them a specific time and location to meet you. Without the space/time data, it would be ridiculously hard to find people. It just dawned on me that without a cell phone I could be at the exact place to meet someone, but if I didn’t have the time to meet, we’d probably never connect; or if I had the time to meet but not the location, we also wouldn’t be able to find each other. When space and time converge, you have a connection. I don’t know why that hit me, but it just seemed so profound.
My sister didn’t realize until we landed in Krabi that the Airbnb she booked was 2.5 hours away from the airport and away from the main city of Krabi. We’re basically in a jungle without any stores or groceries within 15 minutes walking. This wasn’t what she thought, but we’re making the most of it. They were expecting more shopping and city life, but this is more for surfers and scuba divers. It has a very laid back feel to it where you go with friends to island hop and bar hop. We grabbed some dinner to go at this swanky outdoor restaurant. Dogs and cats just hanging out at restaurants is apparently the norm out here.
I’m pretty chill with whatever we do. I’m okay with just relaxing and taking in the scene. What I am excited about is the place we are staying it. This place is awesome, and the design is close to how I’d like a place. I’m inspired by it, and I’m not really a house guy. This place helps me imagine living in something like this, and it’s pretty exciting.
I’m not someone who is opposed to the nice things. I’m also not for being flashy and blingy or spending money foolishly to enrich your own life. I’m in the middle believing that we should have the freedom to spend without feeling condemned or guilty, BUT it’s important to check our hearts. David and Soloman and many others had some beautiful homes, and they had stuff; A LOT of stuff. The possessions aren’t the issue. The issue God has with people is their heart.
Are they all about themselves and enriching their own lives? Do you only love God because He provides you with wealth? Would you sob and bemoan losing your material goods or do you live with open arms knowing that God gives and He can take away? Do you hold onto your possessions with clutched fists, and withhold good from people that need it?
I believe those are the things we should care about more instead of looking at the outwardly. The outwardly is deceptive. Jesus called the Rabbi’s whitewashed tombs. They said and did everything that “looked good” on the outside, but inwardly they were corrupt and prideful. It’s not fair to judge someone based on what they have or how much money they have. It’s their motives and heart behind what they have that matters.
I’ll be the first to say that I tend to judge people on how they spend. I think it’s important to check our hearts. What you spend a lot of time and money on tends to give you clues on where your heart lies. That is something we always need to check and ask God to help us see blind spots. There might be seasons where it’s okay to spend on certain things, and there might be seasons where God asks you to give it all up. God wants to know if we’re willing to follow him whatever that looks like.
If you’re familiar with the rich young ruler, the problem with the rich young ruler wasn’t that he had a lot of money. The issue was that he cared so much about his money that it impeded his relationship and love for Christ. When God asked Solomon what He should give him, Solomon’s response pleased God. He didn’t ask for riches and fame. He asked for wisdom to steward God’s people. In response to that, God gave him the riches. God’s not opposed to giving his children wealth if it’s not your idol. If God’s a good God and he knows that money will ensnare you and destroy your faith, why would God give you riches?
In the Christian community, it’s common to start judging people when they have nice stuff. I think this attitude is poisonous. Without knowing someone, our first gut reaction is to believe anyone that has a nice house or nice car must not be as “Christian.” We can get into conversations about upper and lower “acceptable” limits of extravagance, but that would be for another conversation and longer dialogue. But it’s important to see taking off our own bias and seeing things from a relative perspective.
Having a smaller house in the United States compared to living in Haiti’s slums is relatively the same as someone living in a small house compared to a mansion. This isn’t a license to spend money foolishly or live lavishly. I think there is wise spending and stewarding well and doing our best to take care of the widows, orphans, and church community. I’m mainly against the notion of shackling people into perceived “Christian” ways of spending. I think if we are aligned with Christ and love Him with all our hearts, then our money will flow towards where we believe he wants it to go. A natural question some might conjure up is “Do you think God wants you to spend all that money on a huge house?”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Many arguments can be made. From a financial perspective, the purchases can be argued that higher-end homes and neighborhoods retain their value better and appreciate faster. It could be a good store of value if you have a lot of wealth. “Well, why don’t you just spend the money on building an orphanage right now?” Bill Gates, Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffet, etc. spend a good portion of their life accumulating wealth and holding on to it before they planned to give it all away.
I say this to bring up the argument that maybe instead of spending the little you have, use that money to grow your businesses to be able to make a larger impact in the Kingdom at a later time. Is this the right answer all the time? Absolutely not. That’s why we have a personal relationship with Christ, and our decisions and what we do will be personalized for our situation GROUNDED by the basic biblical truth. If your hearing from the Lord is antithetical to the Bible, I don’t care what you “heard,” it’s wrong. I.e., God told me to worship idols and also to become a god. But if you feel strongly about what God has called you to, you’ve sought wise counsel, operate in a loving, theologically sound community; then you have a much higher probability of hearing correctly from the Lord. EVEN if you’re wrong, but you operated from genuine faith grounded in love and truth and did your best the seek wisdom from wise counsel, I’d find it hard for God to be made at that. It could just be part of the lessons he’s teaching you so that you’re wiser and can give wise counsel to others.
There are so many ways to skin the cat on this topic, but ultimately everything goes back to the heart. I went on a major tangent, but I thought this was important to talk about.
Anyways, I took a little swim in the pool at night to test it out and did some calisthenics since there is no gym here. Now it’s off to bed and up for tomorrows festivities.