“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.'” (Mark 12: 41-44 KJV)
“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.'” (Mark 12: 41-44 NIV)
I’ve put this verse down twice, in two different versions, because it is that important to me. God took the opportunity to knock me upside my stubborn head today while I was preparing to type up a different Manna Monday post, but before I tell you that story let me give you a little background.
A few weeks ago we were doing evening chores and the subject of giving somehow came up in the conversation. I used this story as an example to demonstrate to the kids the correct attitude of giving and that we are to give not when we have extra money to give, but when we are called to give. I made the point that God blesses us when we give during the hard times because the sacrifice is greater. It is easy to give for the wrong reasons when you have extra to give or when you are giving someone else’s money. The kids listened intently and seemed to gain something from the exchange. I was satisfied that I had accomplished that and we went on with our evening. The conversation turned to other things and life moved right on along. Fast forward to Saturday morning.
Mrs. Lone Star and I sat down to do our budget and pay bills. A lovely chore that is looked forward to with enthusiasm (I hope the sarcasm that is absolutely dripping in my mind is evident here). Every year at Christmas time we donate to several charities. One of those charities is Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse. They have an earlier deadline for donations than some of the local charities we support because the shoeboxes that are filled must be shipped around the world to various locations to go to a child in need. This is a fantastic charity and one of the wonderful things about this is that because you are not donating money, but rather a shoebox of items that goes directly to a child in need, you know that 100% of your gift goes to someone in need rather than to a top heavy executive group like some charities. As a result of this deadline, this charity was part of this budget as we will not have another pay check before the donation deadline. As you may know, my resignation from my second full time job earlier in the year has resulted in a much tighter budget for us. Sometimes we have no extra money to get through a pay period, but rather just what we need to pay our bills. (Isn’t God good? We may not have extra to buy expensive things, but just as he promised us when the time came for that resignation, he has provided the things we NEED). When we were done with the budget we looked at each other and sighed. No extra money this budget. We decided to not give to Operation Christmas Child this year. We were both disappointed but the money simply wasn’t there. We do not have extraneous things to give up (like a daily Starbucks coffee trip or something of the sort). Those things were eliminated from the budget months ago as the extra money from the other job halted. That was it. Plain and simple. Nothing to eliminate in the budget that would give us extra money to donate so we just wouldn’t donate. Fast forward to today.
I sat down to write today’s Manna Monday post. I had another post planned but as I sat down to write it God brought this verse to my mind. I reread the verse. I realized that I was trying to give out of my excess (which I didn’t have). I immediately grabbed my wallet, went to Mrs. Lone Star, and pulled out a $100 bill that I had been stashing for many, many months (probably a year and half or more). I had been hanging on to that money for an emergency. With our money as tight as it is, $100 may be a huge asset in an emergency. I handed it to Mrs. Lone Star and told her to get the stuff we needed so that we could donate to the charity. I’m not telling you this story for my own glory (as a matter of fact we practice the Biblical principle of giving in secret) but so that you can understand why this verse is important to me and so that hopefully it will touch someone else’s life. I didn’t consider that money as excess. It wasn’t extra; it represented part of our meager savings, but as this verse clearly demonstrates, we aren’t to give just because we have excess (all though any giving from a humble and generous heart is honored) but to give because we are called to. We felt called to give to this charity a few years ago and that calling hasn’t lessened. Therefore, we are to continue to give regardless of excess or not. And that is exactly what we will be doing this year. Hopefully someone will be blessed as a result of our obedience. God may give us a new blessing as a result of this obedience, and he may not. That is not the point of giving. We are giving to be obedient to God so that someone else will be blessed. As you go through this holiday season I hope that this lesson that I was taught again today resounds with you so that when you are passing someone in a lobby and God tells you to give them the last $5 dollars in your wallet you will be obedient; when God speaks to you about giving to your local food pantry, you are willing and obedient enough to grab the last can of food from your larder to give. Your gift and your obedience to God may be the very gift that leads someone else to Christ, or renews their waning faith in God as they struggle through a hard time. Your obedience may very well be the one gift that God uses to pull someone suicidal back from the brink.
It is my sincere hope that this post does not come across as self-serving. I want to reiterate that I did not write this to bring glory to our meager gift to a charity. I hope that today’s post touches you as much as writing it has touched me. God has used this post to rewrite a valuable lesson on my heart and as a result I may not have done this post much justice. It may just be rambling to everyone else. It was hard to write through the litany of emotions that were constantly trying to overwhelm me. If it has touched you, then heed the voice of God and give where and when you are asked to give. I promise that your heart will be blessed. Have a wonderful day and God bless.
*If you feel led to donate to Operation Christmas Child please feel free to do so. Next week is National Collection Week (Nov 17th-24th) if you wish to donate this year but you may send a box year round to their collection center for next year’s operation.