The Way of Jesus

ICA and the Gallagher Family on "The Talk"

 

Bounce Your Last Check - Sunday February 14th

Bounce Your Last Check

This is our final teaching in our "the Way of Generosity" series.  How do we leverage our entire life for the kingdom of God?  We ask this and several other question in this teaching as we seek a life that gives everything away.

Austrian tycoon Karl Rabeder gives up fortune

Tycoon trades high life

HENRY SAMUEL

February 10, 2010

Giving it all away ... Karl Rabeder.

PARIS: An Austrian tycoon is giving away every penny of his £3 million ($5.3 million) fortune, having realised that his riches made him unhappy.

Karl Rabeder, 47, a businessman from Telfs, near Innsbruck, is selling his villa with lake, sauna and spectacular mountain views over the Alps, valued at £1.4 million.

Also for sale is his old stone farmhouse in Provence, on the market for £613,000. Already gone is his collection of six gliders valued at £350,000.

Mr Rabeder has also sold the interior furnishings and accessories business - from vases to artificial flowers - that made his fortune.

''My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing. Money is counter-productive - it prevents happiness.''

He will move out of his Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck, surviving on £800 a month while the proceeds go to a charity he set up in Latin America. He will draw no salary from it.

''For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness. I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years.''

But over time a conflicting feeling developed. ''More and more I heard the words: 'Stop what you are doing now - all this luxury and consumerism - and start your real life'. I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.''

For many years, he said, he was not brave enough to give up his comforts. The tipping point came during a three-week holiday with his wife in Hawaii.

''It was the biggest shock in my life when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five-star lifestyle is.

''In those three weeks we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time we had the feeling we hadn't met a single real person - that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important, and nobody was real.''

Mr Rabeder decided to raffle his Alpine home, selling 21,999 tickets at £87 each. The Provence house, in the village of Cruis, is on sale at the local estate agent.

All the money will go into his microcredit charity, which offers small loans and advice to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

Since deciding to sell up, Mr Rabeder said he had felt ''free, the opposite of heavy''. But he did not judge those who chose to keep their wealth. ''I do not have the right to give any other person advice. I was just listening to the voice of my heart and soul.''

Telegraph, London

via www.smh.com.au

Here is an example of a Downshifter.  

Thanks JR for posting this story.

Dressed and Ready: Gear for a Generous Life

Dressed and Ready

Part 4 of 5 in our The Way of Generosity series.  We look at generosity through the lens of not just training, but winter running in Minnesota.  We look at how to dress for generosity in all seasons not just when the conditions are "favorable".

(Note: the audio take a minute before it begins.)

The 'Luxury Prime': How Luxury Changes People — HBS Working Knowledge

What effect does luxury have on human cognition and decision making? According to new research, there seems to be a link between luxury and self interest, an insight that may help curb corporate excesses. Roy Y.J. Chua of Harvard Business School discusses findings from his work conducted with Xi Zou of London Business School. Key concepts include:

via hbswk.hbs.edu

I really found this study fascinating.  Follow the link above to a Q & A with Roy Chua.  Included in the article is a link to the full study called "The Devil Wears Prada? Effects of Exposure to Luxury Goods on Cognition and Decision Making".  I'll be referring to this study in this Sunday's teaching called Dressed and Ready.

On Tithing: For the Love of God and Justice

On Tithing: For the Love of God and Justice

(click the above link to listen or right click and select to download the mp3 file to your computer)

This teaching survey's the Old Testament varied instructions around tithing.  We are asking the question "what is God like?" and "what is He training the people of God to do and care about?"  Here is the notes page for this teaching Download On Tithing.

Shalom ~ D

Identity Theft: Uncovering the Plot to Steal Our Soul

Identity Theft

(click the above link to play or right click and select to download the mp3 file to your computer)

This is week 2 of our "The Way of Generosity Series".  We explore consumerism in this teaching and the very real issues surrounding getting life from the stuff we own and consume.  How do we live in and get our life from God so that we can be free from needing our products to prop up our identity?  This issue is way bigger and complex than what could be covered in this teaching and I hope you can add to this discussion.

shalom,

David

For Ex-Pro Athletes, Big Bucks Often Fleeting : NPR

"By the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce," writes reporter Pablo Torre in the March 23 issue of the magazine. Torre's article is called "How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke."

via www.npr.org  (follow this link to entire article)

Here's an interesting piece on NPR that I came across in researching our current teaching series. 

God is Like a Father Who Lost Two Sons

God is Like a Father Who Lost Two Sons(click on the highlighted link to play the audio or right click and select to download the mp3 file to your computer)

We begin our series on The Way of Generosity by exploring Luke 15.  Jesus crafts three stories to help reframe the religious leaders perception of God and what he is like.  Our action in life is derived from our view of God and reality.  The story of two lost sons can work on us in profound ways in how we view life, reality and God.

If you enjoy the historical background to these parables I recommend the works of Kenneth Bailey.  There is a link in the left column to his Cross and the Prodigal.

Shalom,

David

Slavery, Wallets, and Freedom

Download "Slavery, Wallets, and Freedom".mp3  We got to hear from Debbie Walker and her work with victims of sex traffiking in India.  We then moved to unveil the deep slavery of money and consumerism in the US.  And how leading with our wallet can actually move our hearts to financial freedom.  The last two teachings on money are extremely challenging to me personally and have been a call to renewal in my own life and desire to keep growing in generosity.  shalom.