What Money Can Buy

Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

—Hebrews 13:16

Before the Cooking Club decided to hold a garage sale and bake sale for our church’s Care Center, we talked about hunger, about privilege, simplicity, waste, and wealth. We talked about how easy it is to settle into a lifestyle of accumulation, to get used to buying and buying and buying, and then living in homes that are bursting with stuff we don’t need, can’t find a place for, shouldn’t have bought in the first place. We want to live simpler, more responsible lives, with less waste and clutter. We want to be thoughtful consumers instead of rabid accumulators.

It’s easy to think that because you can’t do something extraordinary, you can’t do anything at all, that if you can’t overhaul your entire life in one fell swoop, then you might as well do nothing. We started where we could, with what we had. I hope it’s just the beginning for us. I hope the next time each of us are at Target or Anthropologie, we think a little harder about what that money could buy, about families in our community who need bread, milk, and apples more than we need necklaces, sunglasses, and cardigans.