Two words.
Nov 13th by Jon“I want the Stuff Christians Like book to sell slightly more copies than Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life.’”
That’s what I told Zondervan.
Actually, I think my direct quote was, “If the Stuff Christians Like book sells more copies than Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life’ I will buy you all solid gold, life sized remote control cars.” (It just seemed like the right thing to do. I’m pretty generous, I know.)
How did Zondervan respond?
“No problem, we just have 40 million more books to sell and we’ll have hit that goal.”
Chances are, I won’t ever have to pay out that promise, but it’s fun to joke about that, especially as I sit down to write a second book.
A week ago, I told my daughter L.E. what the publishing process was like. “I’m writing a second book right now that I don’t have a book deal for. We’re going to try to convince a publisher to pay us for this book.” She thought for a second and then, with the same grenade lobbing thought process that inspired me to build the kindergartens, said:
“And if we get too much money, we can give it to Vietnam.”
I love that. I love that as a six year old she still believes in the concept of “too much” money. Those words are so foreign to me as an adult. There’s no such thing as “too much” money. That’s crazy talk. Have you ever heard someone at work say, “Yeah, my wife and I realized we have too much money so we’re trying to figure out how to do something with it before it does something with us.”
Doubtful, but kids still get that concept, at least until we train it out of them. I don’t know at what age it happens, but at some point we take away their idea of “too much” and instead give them the idea of “not enough.” We switch out those two words and to tell you the truth, I’m to blame to a degree.
For the last 12 years or so I’ve written advertising and for the most part, advertising is pretty simple. I don’t sit down and say, “How can I help this person improve their life?” I instead sit down and say, “How can I help this person experience such a depth of emptiness that they believe the only possible way to fill it is to purchase the thing I offer?” Not all advertising does that, that’s a gross oversimplification and there are noble companies. The IT department I currently work in doesn’t do that. But a large degree of advertising is geared that way.
So when I wrote, I didn’t try to get you to buy granite countertops for your kitchen, I tried to get you to imagine a Thanksgiving where family members gathered around the heart of the home, a warm kitchen where laughter and life spilled out into the kind of moments you never forget.
That’s why it was so weird to hear L.E. say, “If we get too much money…”
Those words sounded like something an alien from another planet would say, but I think she was right. I think there are times in life where we have enough. Not in a shameful way, and please know I believe God pours out His love in an abundance that makes Trump look modest, but I think there are situations when we have enough.
These are impossible financial times. We’re in the midst of a horrible economy. That anyone gave a dollar to help this project blows me away, never mind the $40,000 we’ve already raised toward our goal of $60,000.
We’re almost done. Zakk, our metrosexual worship leader, is about $500 from getting two more metrosexual accoutrements today.
This has been such a fun/crazy experience. From “that’s pretend, right?” to “If we get too much money …” I feel like I’ve really been challenged. And I hope you have too.
Normal Stuff Christians Like programming will return on Monday. In the meantime, let’s finish this project. Let’s get Zakk fully clothed and two kindergartens fully built. Let’s jump into the joy of this.
Click here to donate.
p.s. Lest you think my daughter is a saint, when I told her on Monday we had raised $23,000 for the first kindergarten, her immediate response was “Do you know how many American Girl Dolls that would buy?” I told her, “About 2. Those things are ridiculous.”
Comments
I think we can learn a lot from the innocence of children…
too much money – good thought!
I love this whole venture!
“About 2. Those things are ridiculous.” Amen, my brother.
it's amazing how wonderful life becomes as a christian when we learn to live with less!!
"more copies than Rick Warren’s ‘Purpose Driven Life"?
why not
maybe not today
maybe later
I'll speak to the finance department and see if I can help you reach this goal by purchasing my own copy
otherwise : high five on the kindergarden thing, awesome!
I totally understand what L.E. is thinking. When I was a little girl, I way I could comprehend large amounts of money was through American Girl Dolls. You could buy the complete set of any doll for $1000 (the doll, her books, all her clothes, furniture, etc.). When someone would talk about money, like "That car is going to cost us $9,000" I would always imagine that that was about the same as nine Felicity dolls. "American Girl Dolls" was my unit of currency.
"American Girl Dolls" was my unit of currency.
That is brilliant. I love it.
Jon
One of my siblings deals in various iPod models as units of currency. Used to be iPod nanos, now they are on to conceptualizing things in terms of iPod touches.
This is such an amazing thing that's happening. I will so take you out to lunch one day if you want.
Of course, you'll probably tell me to keep the money and donate it to the project instead, until I tell you three little words:
Golden Corral Buffet.
Yeah, I thought so. I'll be waiting.
great post Jon!
American Girl dolls are the only way to measure money till the age of ten!
When are corncob dolls or clothes pin dolls going to come back into style? I hope it's soon because my 2 year old daughter is growing up FAST!
amen. our God is a cheerful, abundant giver and we as His children should be likewise. your daughter is wise. i hope she always knows that with God we lack for nothing.
and the one thing that kept me from the american girls dolls (my favorite was felicity) was the exhorbitant price. seriously, the cost of outfitting one doll with clothes and furniture and even the companion best-friend doll and books could provide for several villages outside the western world. </wistful rant>
But it was fun to look through the catalogue.
But did you?? Did you actually give at least part of that money to help someone else or did you just try to sound noble by rejecting the American Girl Dolls. I really get ticked when people don't practice what they preach.
“And if we get too much money, we can give it to Vietnam.”
I hear this and I hear it so matter-of-factly like, "we need air to breathe".
Genius.
Hehe… advertising is cool.
it is. I have such a love/hate relationship with it. I love buying the One Show and reading Comm Arts and going broke on design books, but at the same time hate some of the silliness marketing throws at us.
I think we must be in a similar boat. I really, really enjoy selling. I hope that I can do so this winter break, but it feels so wrong to be using Christmas to make money.
I have been out of town the past week and really relieved that you decided to extend this fundraising for another week! I would have been so sad to miss it!!!!! We are giving our donation today!
"About 2, those things are ridiculous."
that sounds like something my parents would have said.
Out of the mouths of babes & sucklings, etc.
I’ve been unemployed for a while, but I’m still well off. Lately I’ve been thinking of working for a charity though, and yeah, the salary is faith-based. That completely blows my mind, that I would have to go to my church, let alone others, and say ‘i can haz moneys?’
How can I compete with Vietnamese kindergartens!?
Jon, watching this money roll in has brought me to tears each time I see that little red bar inch closer and closer to another goal. Wow…just wow. I knew this website was God-inspired and God-blessed, but who knew we could bless people outside our little snarky community? I cannot WAIT to see what God has us do next!
I LOVE this post. Love it.
Your blog is such a perfect mix of humor and seriousness.
This post is very inspirational. Not only for the Vietnam school fund, but also for how to raise children well.
Awesome.
I love the innocence of that comment, "and if we get too much money we can send it to vietnam," Genius.
"Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." Yup. get it now.
(and of course the artlessness of the "do you know how many american girl dolls that would buy?" L.E sounds like a legend.)
I got an American Girl doll for Christmas when I was seven. I'm 25 now and while I obviously don't play with her anymore, I did watch an American Girl infomercial recently and found myself wishing it were remotely appropriate for me to get her back out and order some new overpriced accessories. American Girl dolls are awesome.
But not as awesome as Vietnamese kindergartens. You're really cool for doing this.
When I started reading the thing about the solid gold remote-control cars, my first thought was, "Dude…you really shouldn't say stuff like that. Because you never know. Your blog raised $30K for kids in Vietnam in 18 hours. Never say never."
Great post. I love that you can still be funny while you're talking about serious stuff.
It seems that your daughter is wiser then anyone on this blog.
L.E. is smart. Can she teach me how to put my pic next to StacyFromLouisville?
She probably can but is probably solving other major world crisis's.
But I can help you…
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The first thought that ran through my head when I read, ". . . at some point we take away their idea of 'too much' and instead give them the idea of 'not enough'" were the words out of my mouth just the other day, "Do you think money grows on trees?!" and "It jus doesn't spill out of my pockets, you know!" Sigh
Maybe I'll be able to remember your post before the words come out of my mouth next time. There's such a fine line between teaching them responsibility and allowing their dreams to fly . . .
Thank you for this.
Wow. That really was sweet. I wonder how much money I think is too much. For me and my family, I mean, not someone else…
I think you touched on a great point there, Helen. It so easy for us as believers to spend our time and energy focused on what is too much for someone else and their family and not enough figuring it out for our own. You are profound woman!
Loved this, Jon! And your daughter rocks! I love the wisdom of children. Maybe that's why Jesus said we have to be as a little child.
I want to see a picture of metrosexual Zakk!
I didn't want the American Girl dolls…I wanted the matching full-size costumes for myself! Especially the Felicity dresses.
It's a good thing they don't sell American Girl costumes in adult sizes. I would be horribly tempted to buy several for myself. $23,000 – do you know how many American Girl matching pajama sets I could buy with that much money?
(It's 426.)
add a study guide to your book, market it to every church known to mankind, and you'll sell more than rick warren. maybe.
So, is there such a thing as too many American Girl dolls?
God understands "too many" and "too much" a lot better than we do. See Judges 7-8.