Respecting the Benefactor.
Junglepop posted an interesting question yesterday in his post: Missionaries, Those Welfare Christians
He basically compares the scrutiny that we give to folks buying junk food with their food stamps to the scrutiny that missionaries feel when they spend their donated "Salaries" on certain indulgences.
I think that it is likely that if we where to get to know one of the welfare recipients, and take them shopping, they would probably use much better judgment with our money than they do when they are using the Government's money. The transaction has a lot more meaning when you can see the person who is giving it to you. It has a lot more meaning when you see their motives in giving it to you. When a check comes in the mail every week from an anonymizing bureaucracy, that love transaction is lost. The beneficiary feels entitled, and the provider feels taxed.
I think that missionaries like Joe are quite conscious of their supporters, and try to use their money wisely. (thus the post) That made me think. As Christians, aren't we all missionaries here? (John 17:14-18) Are we treating our provider as an anonymous bureaucracy? Or are we treating him as our generous friend?
I don't think we need to treat our provider as a generous friend, as generally our provider is an employer, and we work for the money we get, thus it is ours to waste however we wish. Donations are, as you have pointed out, though, another situation altogether. Because the money is not deserved or earned, then it must be used in the ways that the charitable individual or person who has given it would approve of. At least, in general.
The Benefactor that I am refering to is God himself. Yes, we may work for the money that we earn, but our capacity to earn that money is a direct gift from him.
Just as the missionary is sent into the field with specific services to provide, we are sent into the workplace with certain services to provide.
If we are living high on the hog, and treating our real mission as trivial daily grind, then our priorities are out of wack.