The Hole-A Guest Post by Michelle DeRusha

Blogging over at Graceful, Michelle DeRusha is someone you may not know, but someone who has the voice of a forever friend. I've always enjoyed Michelle's writing, and I've always connected easily with the things she says, but then I read about her Shop-Not Project.

What? No shopping for a year? Was she crazy? Maybe, but after hearing about her project, I liked her even more, and I have a feeling you will too! Here's Michelle-

Richard Stearns’ book The Hole in Our Gospel burned a hole in my heart. I read it last winter, and when I flipped the last page, I turned back to the first and started it again from the beginning. It was that good.

I wrote a series of posts on the book, but when I was done, it didn’t feel like enough. I just couldn’t get the statistics out of my head:

• More than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today, and tomorrow and the day after that.

• Almost 10 million children will be dead in a year from preventable causes related to poverty.

• More than 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.

For a long time I’ve had an internal vision of God and His work – I’ve been primarily concerned with how He works in my life, for me. I’ve been fixated on myself: Is my faith strong enough? Do I believe? Why do I doubt? Do I love God in my heart? It’s been all about me.

Richard Stearns turned that internal focus inside out:

“Being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public and transforming relationship with the world…Living out our faith privately was never meant to be an option.”

I thought for a long time about those statistics on world poverty. I thought for a long time about what Stearns said about having a personal and public relationship with God. And I thought a long time about how much I have -- how much more than enough I have.

On September 1, I launched The Shop-Not Project – a year-long shopping hiatus. No clothes, no shoes, no purses, no jewelry, no accessories. For 365 days. The money saved at the end of twelve months will be used to sponsor a Compassion child.

The thing is, I love to shop. Love it like a Coco Chanel. Love it like a Paris Hilton. It doesn’t even need to be extravagant shopping. A sweater on sale at Old Navy is enough for me; consignment store jeans will light my fire. It’s the shopping I love, the high I get from something new.

The first couple weeks of Shop-Not were easy. I felt virtuous, proud (probably not exactly what God intended).

But then reality set in. I went shopping with my husband – he had a gift card to Banana Republic. While he tried on pants in the dressing room, I breezed over to the women’s side of the store and ran my hand along the fabrics – cashmere, merino wool, tweed, satin. The thought of 11 more months of no shopping gave me nothing short of a pit in my stomach.

My solution for now is to steer clear, to avoid the temptation of Target and Ann Taylor. Out-of-sight, out-of mind helps to ease the urge to buy that fitted blazer or the sumptuous tote. And when in doubt, I page through The Hole in Our Gospel again. Because there’s no avoiding the truth in these words:

“There is no ‘whole gospel’ without compassion and justice shown to the poor.

It’s that simple.”

Richard Stearns

Want to read more from Michelle? Take some time and bounce over to Graceful. What do you think fellow bloggers? Could you give up shopping for a year? If so, what would you do with the money you saved?