Giving
We're promised that this is the "most fantastical favorite things ever", and a "two-day joy filled frenzy." Well, if that's just not exciting I don't know what is! Oprah opens by telling us that her audience is filled with ultimate viewers who have given back in some way to the people around them. She says giving is one of the most important things you can do, and she has two chairs so that people can come up and she can interview them about how they have given.
Oprah thinks the best way to prepare for giving is meditation, and we hear what I can only assume is a meditation gong? She asks how many people meditate and only a few people raise their hands; she cracks a joke about the lack of a "rousing" response but talks about how meditating allows you to clear a channel for giving to others. She says, "How about we meditate on this?" The sound of jingling bells start, Oprah removes the (weird) black and yellow outfit that was covering a red (Santa inspired?) dress, says something about "favorite things", and, as you might expect, pretty much euphoria breaks out. Grown men are jumping up and down in circles and other grown men are sobbing... and that's just the men, never mind the ladies. That tells you something! Not to mention the fact that Oprah has medics in the audience in case someone gets too, too excited.
After transforming the studio from black and dark into a sparkling winter wonderland, Oprah jokes to "hold onto yourself" because "it's a long hour." She can't even say "favorite things" without massive screaming breaking out. She's regiving some of her ultimate favorite things and then some new stuff as well.
The "favorite things" list:
(Retail prices are rounded up to nearest dollar)
1. Limited Edition 25th Anniversary "Oprah" Watch by Philip Stein (it's got 58 diamonds, people!)
Retail price: $2,475
2. Flannel Tory Tote & Custom Made Reva Ballerina Flat by Tory Burch
Retail price: $445
3. Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera with HD Video (yeah, I'm jealous of this one!)
Retail price: $700
4. Long Sleeve Open Placket Cashmere Sweater & Cashmere Cable Throw by Ralph Lauren
Retail price: $498 (that's just for the sweater, not including the blanket!)
5. Judith Ripka Eclipse Earrings (made with canary crystal with white sapphires set in sterling silver)
Retail price: $525
6. Andre Walker Hair Care Products (the ONLY thing Oprah uses on her hair from her only hairstylist for 25 years)
Retail price: $65
7. Lafco House and Home Collection Candle Set (retail $55 each; all 18 scents to each person)
Retail price: $990
8. Breville Panini Press (she loves it so much she bought 22 as personal gifts to give away to love ones!)
Retail price: $100
9. Kyocera Ceramic Cutlery Set of 2 Knives, Santoku & Paring (the "only" knife Oprah uses!)
Retail price: $75
10. Beecher's "World's Best" Handmade Mac & Cheese (comes frozen)
16. elfa Customizable Container System from the Container Store
Extras
Oprah shares about Kiva.org, a site where for as little as $25 you can give a loan to impoverished entrepreneurs around the world. These small loans help people start small businesses with these small loans. Groupon supplied the entire audience with $100 gift cards to go to Kiva and choose whose loans to fund. Groupon is also matching what viewers give Kiva up to $500,000. If you're interested, you can go here to give and Groupon will give another $10:
http://www.kiva.org/
The Black Eyed Peas Perform
After sharing all of the favorite things, the Black Eyed Peas sing a mash-up of their latest hit, the remake of Time Of My Life (yes, that one from Dirty Dancing), with the Christmas classic Little Drummer Boy. Oprah says their her favorite group and she gives the entire audience a copy of The Beginning, the Black Eyed Peas' latest album. She thanks everyone, and tells the audience that they can go home and listen to Time Of My Life and think about how they had the time of their lives getting free stuff. And then we're out!
Up Monday
We're promised that this is the "most fantastical favorite things ever", and a "two-day joy filled frenzy." Well, if that's just not exciting I don't know what is! Oprah opens by telling us that her audience is filled with ultimate viewers who have given back in some way to the people around them. She says giving is one of the most important things you can do, and she has two chairs so that people can come up and she can interview them about how they have given.
Oprah thinks the best way to prepare for giving is meditation, and we hear what I can only assume is a meditation gong? She asks how many people meditate and only a few people raise their hands; she cracks a joke about the lack of a "rousing" response but talks about how meditating allows you to clear a channel for giving to others. She says, "How about we meditate on this?" The sound of jingling bells start, Oprah removes the (weird) black and yellow outfit that was covering a red (Santa inspired?) dress, says something about "favorite things", and, as you might expect, pretty much euphoria breaks out. Grown men are jumping up and down in circles and other grown men are sobbing... and that's just the men, never mind the ladies. That tells you something! Not to mention the fact that Oprah has medics in the audience in case someone gets too, too excited.
After transforming the studio from black and dark into a sparkling winter wonderland, Oprah jokes to "hold onto yourself" because "it's a long hour." She can't even say "favorite things" without massive screaming breaking out. She's regiving some of her ultimate favorite things and then some new stuff as well.
The "favorite things" list:
(Retail prices are rounded up to nearest dollar)
1. Limited Edition 25th Anniversary "Oprah" Watch by Philip Stein (it's got 58 diamonds, people!)
Retail price: $2,475
2. Flannel Tory Tote & Custom Made Reva Ballerina Flat by Tory Burch
Retail price: $445
3. Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera with HD Video (yeah, I'm jealous of this one!)
Retail price: $700
4. Long Sleeve Open Placket Cashmere Sweater & Cashmere Cable Throw by Ralph Lauren
Retail price: $498 (that's just for the sweater, not including the blanket!)
5. Judith Ripka Eclipse Earrings (made with canary crystal with white sapphires set in sterling silver)
Retail price: $525
6. Andre Walker Hair Care Products (the ONLY thing Oprah uses on her hair from her only hairstylist for 25 years)
Retail price: $65
7. Lafco House and Home Collection Candle Set (retail $55 each; all 18 scents to each person)
Retail price: $990
8. Breville Panini Press (she loves it so much she bought 22 as personal gifts to give away to love ones!)
Retail price: $100
9. Kyocera Ceramic Cutlery Set of 2 Knives, Santoku & Paring (the "only" knife Oprah uses!)
Retail price: $75
10. Beecher's "World's Best" Handmade Mac & Cheese (comes frozen)
Retail price: $29
11. Baker's Edge Lasagna & Brownie Pans with Ghiradelli Brownie Mix
Retail price: $35 (but that's only for the brownie pan, so I estimate $80 for all three)
12. A Course in Weight Loss by Marianne Williamson (21 spiritual lessons to weight loss)
Retail price: $25
13. Decoded by Jay-Z (gives context and "aha" moments about the culture of hip-hop)
Retail price: $35
14. 5 Year Netflix Membership
Retail price: $600 (my estimate of $10 per month for 5 years)
15. Sony Bravia 52" HD 3D Television + Sony BDP-5570 3D Blu-ray Disc Player
Retail price: $3,600 (just for TV)
16. elfa Customizable Container System from the Container Store
Retail price: up to $1,000
17. Season 25 V-neck T-shirt from the Oprah store
Retail price: $38
18. Lululemon Relaxed Fit Exercise/Lounge Pants
Retail price: $98
19. Nike Free Run + Shoes
Retail price: $370 (4 pairs, for entire family, at $85 each)
20. Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas 7-day Cruise + United Airlines tickets to port
Retail price: $4,000 (my total guesstimate, since they didn't say and it's not on the website)
Estimated total retail of gifts: $15,703 (not including extras that didn't list a price; does include my estimates)
For the record, assuming her audience was its normal size of 300-ish, today's giveaways total almost $5 million. Crazy town. I do assume that most of the items are donated by the companies, because being on this show gets them CRAZY amounts of publicity, so they almost certainly make money despite their hefty donations of goods for the show. In other words, Oprah's not emptying out her personal coffers. Still, it's a lot of stuff being given away!
Estimated total retail of gifts: $15,703 (not including extras that didn't list a price; does include my estimates)
For the record, assuming her audience was its normal size of 300-ish, today's giveaways total almost $5 million. Crazy town. I do assume that most of the items are donated by the companies, because being on this show gets them CRAZY amounts of publicity, so they almost certainly make money despite their hefty donations of goods for the show. In other words, Oprah's not emptying out her personal coffers. Still, it's a lot of stuff being given away!
Extras
Oprah shares about Kiva.org, a site where for as little as $25 you can give a loan to impoverished entrepreneurs around the world. These small loans help people start small businesses with these small loans. Groupon supplied the entire audience with $100 gift cards to go to Kiva and choose whose loans to fund. Groupon is also matching what viewers give Kiva up to $500,000. If you're interested, you can go here to give and Groupon will give another $10:
http://www.kiva.org/
The Black Eyed Peas Perform
After sharing all of the favorite things, the Black Eyed Peas sing a mash-up of their latest hit, the remake of Time Of My Life (yes, that one from Dirty Dancing), with the Christmas classic Little Drummer Boy. Oprah says their her favorite group and she gives the entire audience a copy of The Beginning, the Black Eyed Peas' latest album. She thanks everyone, and tells the audience that they can go home and listen to Time Of My Life and think about how they had the time of their lives getting free stuff. And then we're out!
Gospel Filter Review (GFR)
I have written before about Oprah giving things away and her generosity, which you can read about in the GFR's of these posts.
One thing that stood out to me today was materialism. Here's the deal: there's nothing wrong with stuff. God is a generous God, who loves to give good gifts! He gave the greatest gift of all: Himself. Jesus died on the cross to give us the gift of salvation and then He gives us Himself again when He indwells us with His Holy Spirit. The Bible also says it's not a sin to be rich and it never condemns having nice things. What the Bible does say is sin, though, is the love of money, or, the love of things money can provide.
One of the pastors at my church actually just released a great book called Money: God or Gift?
If you follow the link you can buy the book with free 2 day shipping for only $5! The basic premise is that money is a useful tool from God that He blesses us with and we should in turn bless others with. As an example (that I am making up; it's not from the book), it's ok to furnish a comfortable home for your family. This blesses your family and you can be gracious hosts and have others in your home and bless them. It's not really a blessing to invite people into a cardboard box dripping with rain, filled with smoke from a fire in the corner because there's no other source of heat, and sitting in the dirt with a dinner of cold chili from a can. It certainly wouldn't bless your children or spouse. Gross, right? If we said that we had to live that way while working really hard to make money and give it to the poor to honor Jesus then I don't think anyone would want to become a Christian!
So then, it's ok to ask Jesus about what it looks like to live within your means and have a comfortable home with nice things. It's not inherently sinful. However, all of us have a proclivity, because we are worshipers who are always worshiping something, to begin to worship the things and the stuff and not the worship the One who provided the stuff. This is when we tend to hoard and be greedy. We don't give generously to others in need and we don't share what we have. We focus on the next thing we want to buy, or what we want to upgrade, or maybe how much we want to have in savings in case anything breaks and we can feel secure that we'll be able to fix / replace it. Money then becomes our object of worship and we don't worship God with how we spend it.
This is relevant to today's episode, because it clearly blessed those people to get all of those free things, and that's not wrong! But I even caught myself wishing I was being given that camera. I justified it, thinking, "I don't care about diamond watches or cashmere sweaters, but I sure would love that camera! It has HD video and I'm having my first baby in 3 months and it sure would be nice... I wish I were getting that camera for free." I wasn't wanting to take anyone else's away, I just wished I were somehow getting one. The slope is slippery into envy and coveting, though, and the Bible clearly warns against these. Here is a short litany of verses that warn against envy and covetousness (emphases mine):
*the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was crucified for the sins of all people; I nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, delivered Him up to be crucified, every bit as much as those tangibly there plotting for His arrest. Historically and Biblically, though, it was the Jewish religious leaders who had Jesus arrested, accused him of blasphemy, and incited the crowd to thirst after Jesus' bloody death. See Matthew 26 & 27, Mark 14 & 15, Luke 22 & 23, and John 18 & 19.
There are so many themes here, but the resounding message is that envy and coveting are sinful and lead to all kinds of horrible things. When we get greedy and just want stuff, stuff, stuff (though envy and coveting can refer to non-tangible things like status, power, being respected, etc) it hurts us, it hurts others, and it offends the heart of God. God loves us and wants us to be free, filled with joy. I love that the James verse makes it clear that sometimes we ask God for things and He says, "No," because He knows that if we get it we'll just use it to worship our passions, and it will lead our hearts further away from him. He knows our only freedom and joy is found in being at peace with him, but love of the world (as it's called in I John 2) chokes out love of God and ultimately leads to destruction and death.
Have you ever had a friend owe you money, or maybe you owed them money and it came between you? Perhaps it was an item you let someone borrow but they broke it and didn't replace or fix it. Or maybe someone constantly said they couldn't afford certain things and they expected you to pull some or all of their weight. Maybe you were that person, expecting others to do things for you because they made more money or you came from poverty but they had wealthy parents who bought them stuff so you felt like it was no biggie for them to drive their much nicer car all the time and they pay could for the gas, too. Perhaps none of these apply, but it's triggering a memory of something else that's related.
In that situation, were you freely loving them and receiving love from them? And was your heart inclined to worship Jesus out of joy and thanksgiving? I am willing to guess not. Maybe you felt critical of every penny they spent. Maybe you became anxious every time it was something requiring a carpool and you knew said friend / roommate would have some excuse for why you needed to drive and you would get worked up just in anticipation of the conversation. And then they would not offer gas money and you would bitterly chew them out in your heart when you filled up with gas that you paid for while they went in and bought $7 in junk food and snacks for themselves and didn't offer you so much as a stick of gum.
Maybe you were the withholding one, and you felt nervous because you made such a big deal about what you couldn't afford but then you hid those cute shoes you got because you didn't want your friend to know you spent the money on them. Or when you finally did wear them in front of her you compounded the sin by lying either about the cost and/or how long you had owned them, saying you got them a long time ago but just never wore them. Maybe you told the truth, but heavily overemphasized what a great deal you got on them and how honestly it was a need verging on desperation.
Where is the love and freedom and joy in any of that? Envy and coveting lead to greed and selfishness and even lying and deceit and more and more sin. Again, it hurts us, it hurts our relationships, and it hurts and offends the heart of our generous and good God. So today, it was fine for Oprah to give away nearly $5 million worth of stuff. And it's wonderful that she gave to people who have been gracious and generous givers to people around them. But let's check our own hearts, and ask the Holy Spirit--where are greed, envy, and covetousness, or love of money, lurking in my heart? Where am I blinded by desire for "stuff" and it supercedes my desire to know and worship You, Father?
Ask Jesus for a generous and loving heart that reflects His. The only way to see this transformation is to ask the Father to increase your awareness and appreciation for how generously He gives to you! As you see His good and perfectly generous character flowing toward you and you worship Him then these same attributes will flow through you to others. Praise God that He is generous towards us!
Finally, for additional resources, here is a GREAT (and relatively short!) sermon series called Generous exploring these themes in greater depth in scripture. Put them on while you scrub down your kitchen over the next week or two-- they will seriously bless you! It's four sermons, and less than 2 hours of total content. I know you can squeeze that in!
Oh, and a quick PS--meditation as a channel to within ourselves for the sake of giving to others is worthless! Even though it was sort of shared in a lighthearted way, we know Oprah's serious about meditation and we can REJECT her notion of meditation!
I know I've touched on that before, but look again at the second verse I listed, the passage from Mark 7--ugly things come out of our hearts! We need not meditate inward but pray upward, in worship and repentance of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. From our Trinitarian God comes good things to give and bless others; if it's originating with us then, no matter how generous and good it seems, ultimately it ends with us and satisfying our own sinful motives in some way or another and that leads to death and blesses no one. But if it originates with Christ and flows through us then it honors Jesus, blesses others, and brings us joy. Choose option B!
One thing that stood out to me today was materialism. Here's the deal: there's nothing wrong with stuff. God is a generous God, who loves to give good gifts! He gave the greatest gift of all: Himself. Jesus died on the cross to give us the gift of salvation and then He gives us Himself again when He indwells us with His Holy Spirit. The Bible also says it's not a sin to be rich and it never condemns having nice things. What the Bible does say is sin, though, is the love of money, or, the love of things money can provide.
One of the pastors at my church actually just released a great book called Money: God or Gift?
If you follow the link you can buy the book with free 2 day shipping for only $5! The basic premise is that money is a useful tool from God that He blesses us with and we should in turn bless others with. As an example (that I am making up; it's not from the book), it's ok to furnish a comfortable home for your family. This blesses your family and you can be gracious hosts and have others in your home and bless them. It's not really a blessing to invite people into a cardboard box dripping with rain, filled with smoke from a fire in the corner because there's no other source of heat, and sitting in the dirt with a dinner of cold chili from a can. It certainly wouldn't bless your children or spouse. Gross, right? If we said that we had to live that way while working really hard to make money and give it to the poor to honor Jesus then I don't think anyone would want to become a Christian!So then, it's ok to ask Jesus about what it looks like to live within your means and have a comfortable home with nice things. It's not inherently sinful. However, all of us have a proclivity, because we are worshipers who are always worshiping something, to begin to worship the things and the stuff and not the worship the One who provided the stuff. This is when we tend to hoard and be greedy. We don't give generously to others in need and we don't share what we have. We focus on the next thing we want to buy, or what we want to upgrade, or maybe how much we want to have in savings in case anything breaks and we can feel secure that we'll be able to fix / replace it. Money then becomes our object of worship and we don't worship God with how we spend it.
This is relevant to today's episode, because it clearly blessed those people to get all of those free things, and that's not wrong! But I even caught myself wishing I was being given that camera. I justified it, thinking, "I don't care about diamond watches or cashmere sweaters, but I sure would love that camera! It has HD video and I'm having my first baby in 3 months and it sure would be nice... I wish I were getting that camera for free." I wasn't wanting to take anyone else's away, I just wished I were somehow getting one. The slope is slippery into envy and coveting, though, and the Bible clearly warns against these. Here is a short litany of verses that warn against envy and covetousness (emphases mine):
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness... though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.
Romans 1:29, 32a
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
Mark 7:21-23 (the words of Jesus)
Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” For he knew that it was out of envy that they [the Jewish religious leaders*] had delivered [Jesus] up [to be crucified; murdered].
Matthew 27:15-18
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
Exodus 20:17 (one of the Ten Commandments)
You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:2-4
*the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was crucified for the sins of all people; I nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, delivered Him up to be crucified, every bit as much as those tangibly there plotting for His arrest. Historically and Biblically, though, it was the Jewish religious leaders who had Jesus arrested, accused him of blasphemy, and incited the crowd to thirst after Jesus' bloody death. See Matthew 26 & 27, Mark 14 & 15, Luke 22 & 23, and John 18 & 19.
There are so many themes here, but the resounding message is that envy and coveting are sinful and lead to all kinds of horrible things. When we get greedy and just want stuff, stuff, stuff (though envy and coveting can refer to non-tangible things like status, power, being respected, etc) it hurts us, it hurts others, and it offends the heart of God. God loves us and wants us to be free, filled with joy. I love that the James verse makes it clear that sometimes we ask God for things and He says, "No," because He knows that if we get it we'll just use it to worship our passions, and it will lead our hearts further away from him. He knows our only freedom and joy is found in being at peace with him, but love of the world (as it's called in I John 2) chokes out love of God and ultimately leads to destruction and death.
Have you ever had a friend owe you money, or maybe you owed them money and it came between you? Perhaps it was an item you let someone borrow but they broke it and didn't replace or fix it. Or maybe someone constantly said they couldn't afford certain things and they expected you to pull some or all of their weight. Maybe you were that person, expecting others to do things for you because they made more money or you came from poverty but they had wealthy parents who bought them stuff so you felt like it was no biggie for them to drive their much nicer car all the time and they pay could for the gas, too. Perhaps none of these apply, but it's triggering a memory of something else that's related.
In that situation, were you freely loving them and receiving love from them? And was your heart inclined to worship Jesus out of joy and thanksgiving? I am willing to guess not. Maybe you felt critical of every penny they spent. Maybe you became anxious every time it was something requiring a carpool and you knew said friend / roommate would have some excuse for why you needed to drive and you would get worked up just in anticipation of the conversation. And then they would not offer gas money and you would bitterly chew them out in your heart when you filled up with gas that you paid for while they went in and bought $7 in junk food and snacks for themselves and didn't offer you so much as a stick of gum.
Maybe you were the withholding one, and you felt nervous because you made such a big deal about what you couldn't afford but then you hid those cute shoes you got because you didn't want your friend to know you spent the money on them. Or when you finally did wear them in front of her you compounded the sin by lying either about the cost and/or how long you had owned them, saying you got them a long time ago but just never wore them. Maybe you told the truth, but heavily overemphasized what a great deal you got on them and how honestly it was a need verging on desperation.
Where is the love and freedom and joy in any of that? Envy and coveting lead to greed and selfishness and even lying and deceit and more and more sin. Again, it hurts us, it hurts our relationships, and it hurts and offends the heart of our generous and good God. So today, it was fine for Oprah to give away nearly $5 million worth of stuff. And it's wonderful that she gave to people who have been gracious and generous givers to people around them. But let's check our own hearts, and ask the Holy Spirit--where are greed, envy, and covetousness, or love of money, lurking in my heart? Where am I blinded by desire for "stuff" and it supercedes my desire to know and worship You, Father?
Ask Jesus for a generous and loving heart that reflects His. The only way to see this transformation is to ask the Father to increase your awareness and appreciation for how generously He gives to you! As you see His good and perfectly generous character flowing toward you and you worship Him then these same attributes will flow through you to others. Praise God that He is generous towards us!
Finally, for additional resources, here is a GREAT (and relatively short!) sermon series called Generous exploring these themes in greater depth in scripture. Put them on while you scrub down your kitchen over the next week or two-- they will seriously bless you! It's four sermons, and less than 2 hours of total content. I know you can squeeze that in!
Oh, and a quick PS--meditation as a channel to within ourselves for the sake of giving to others is worthless! Even though it was sort of shared in a lighthearted way, we know Oprah's serious about meditation and we can REJECT her notion of meditation!
I know I've touched on that before, but look again at the second verse I listed, the passage from Mark 7--ugly things come out of our hearts! We need not meditate inward but pray upward, in worship and repentance of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. From our Trinitarian God comes good things to give and bless others; if it's originating with us then, no matter how generous and good it seems, ultimately it ends with us and satisfying our own sinful motives in some way or another and that leads to death and blesses no one. But if it originates with Christ and flows through us then it honors Jesus, blesses others, and brings us joy. Choose option B!
Up Monday
Oprah's Ultimate Favorite Things, Part 2 of 2
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