Rich People Prejudice

Life is so weird. It really, really is. I can barely believe how much our lives have changed in the past year.
* Our family: with addition of Halle.
* Our community: with the addition of Halle (ours) Zoe (Joe & Heidi's) and Dance (Benji & Sarah's).
* Our community: with the addition of the Cornwells, the Williams, the Hites and the Hoys... all of whom we didn't know very well a year ago.
* Our community: the way we gather, the times we gather, the reason we gather, the way we live
* Our church: making some drastic moves from philosophy to practice) toward true community and away from the "7 Day a Week Church" model that seemed to be our goal for so long.
* Our pastor: We are really growing together, and all the fights we have had "together" have truly helped us get past some seemingly unconquerable walls between us and into brighter days. * Many more, but on to the main point...

* Our Perspective (okay maybe this has been a 3 year gradual transition): We view the body of believers... the church... so differently now, that there are very few (if any other) places that we could survive in my current vocation/fulfillment of my calling (???)
* Our Goals/Desires: A church called this week that we used to actually think was one we wanted to end up at, but our desires are so radically different now. When I heard the pastor had called I didn't even remember to check my voice mail before I left the office, because it is so unappealing to me now, and my feelings were affirmed by Kelly. Why? Partly because of leadership style there, partly because of the style of the church, partly because of the history of the church and partly because of the demographic (too white, too large, TOO RICH). The too rich thing is a huge issue for us...
Confession: I have a really difficult time being around rich folks. There, I said it. I am repulsed by their wealth. When I go to their extremely cool, extremely large , extremely expensive homes, my mind goes to work first thinking of how cool the house and all their stuff is and then figuring out how many families could comfortably live there... or how many modest single family homes could be built for the price of their plasma screen... or how many starving children could be fed for the price it takes to fill up their gas guzzling SUV each day... or any number of other number games and secret judgmental mind activities.
In short, rich folks cause me to stumble. I stand in erroneous, assumptive judgment over them because I can't justify the way they are living. I allow bitterness and anger to creep in between them and me. I have even been priviledged to be surrounded by a couple families in my church who are loaded and yet responsible; who give a higher percentage of their income than most could imagine, who use their wealth to further God's work, to feed 5-10 children, to provide for numerous inner city ministries, but my mind still sees them as the exception to the rule... and to be honest, even within that exception I still catch myself struggling with some of their decisions and thinking of other ways that money could be spent.

So... on top of the fact that Kelly and I have no desire to leave our "church"/community, on top of the fact that we don't want to start over at any church (let alone a more traditional "modern" minded one), on top of the fact that the surrounding don't suit us, on top of the fact that we really are happy here and even more excited about what God has in store... I just don't think I can go be a part of a rich, yuppie church, because I am prejudice against rich people.

I know I need to get over that... let me know if you have any ideas... other than prayer and avoiding them (both of which are too easy to come up with).

1 more thing: I really love my wife. Seriously. All of who she is.