When our family first contemplated moving to India, we knew it meant selling most of our possessions. The process of determining what to keep and what to toss or sell was both sobering and freeing.
The first garage sale felt easy. We decluttered and sold outgrown children’s clothes, extra sets of dishes, and old furniture I didn’t like.
But after that sale, our house still looked exactly the same. It didn’t appear we’d sold much of anything.
We held a second garage sale, the kind that said, “Everything must go!” This one hurt more. I sensed an inward struggle. I priced a beloved dining room table set with wrought-iron chair backs too high. I felt sick as people carted off our things, bargaining down to a dollar or two. I ran outside and grabbed that thingamajig out of a bargaining customer’s hand before she acquired a $20 item for $1.
“I still need that!” I gasped. “I didn’t mean to sell it quite yet!”
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” — Matthew 16:24
My husband finally shut down the garage sale early and said, “Get a grip. If you don’t want to sell all of this for a few dollars, then don’t sell it at all!”
My time to surrender materialism came at this moment. When we have to surrender something, it will be a struggle. It will be hard. If it doesn’t involve a wrestling match with either God or our flesh, then I wouldn’t call it surrender.
I looked at my dining room table, along with the rest of the things I just couldn’t quite give up. I asked God to reveal why surrendering that dining room table felt so hard.
He spoke to my soul. “You don’t trust that I can give you another table like that one ever again. The thing is, you don’t need this table right now. Let it go, and trust that if and when you need another table, I’ll make sure you get one. Even if you never get another table like this, can you live with that? Can you give it up to move to India for Me?”
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” — Matthew 16:25
I crumbled and humbled. It felt like such a small thing. Who wouldn’t be willing to give up a table to walk with Jesus on an adventure to a place where millions wait in a shadow of darkness without His light? A table, or people’s souls? No question. I gave it up and decided to trust God.
After that initial surrender, our family joyfully gave the rest of our things to a refugee family from Sudan that had just landed in our city. Our nicest things that I didn’t, or wouldn’t, sell—furniture, rugs, drapes, and accessories—furnished an entire apartment. It felt right. It felt like obedience. It felt like losing our life to find it.
We then asked our children to choose what would fill their suitcases to bring to India. One suitcase each for clothes and one suitcase each for extras, like toys.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” — Matthew 16:26
It’s hard to imagine the American dream as anything but a worthy goal. We wish for a safe life with a steady income and a comfortable retirement.
But if the American dream motivates most of our choices, then moving overseas for the sake of the Gospel will appear ludicrous.
In contrast, Jesus calls us to lose our life in order to find it (Matthew 16:24–26).
The day we stood at the airport, ready to board the plane for what we assumed would be decades away from America, all we owned filled the plastic tubs at our feet, plus some cash in the bank, along with our memories stashed away in the five-by-ten-foot storage unit.
I never felt freer financially.
Click the button below to learn more about surrendering the American Dream for God’s Kingdom in Jeannie’s new book.
This excerpt comes from Jeannie Marie’s new book Across the Street and Around the World: Following Jesus to the Nations in Your Neighborhood and Beyond. Jeannie’s passion is to inspire ordinary believers to cross cultures with courage, confidence, and compassion—both across the street and to the ends of the earth. Our thanks to Thomas Nelson for their partnership in this post.
Main photo by Rob Swatski