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Dear God of Words,
I just hung up the 8th call from the Church COVID Relief team. Look, I get it. A lot of people are suffering right now. We should all be generous ’cos God loves a cheerful giver and the generous will be blessed, so on and so forth. But this thing has been going on for a year. The first couple of times, I did it with a smile on my face. Then, the smile went. Now, the money itself is gone. And I don’t know if it’s made any difference at all to the situation.
I’m running on a budget myself here, God! I get that you’ve got 5000 mouths to feed, but are you seriously going to take everything I brought for lunch? I don’t get your kinda ‘Giving’!
Love,
All-5-Loaves?
Dear All-5-Loaves,
I know it’s been a tough year for you guys and I’m happy that you were one of the few that actually picked up the Church’s 8th call. Not many did and that says a lot about you. I’m glad that you brought up the feeding of the 5000. Let me see if I can use it to help you understand my kind of ‘Giving’.
You see, All-5-loaves, there are 3 types of givers.
The first is the Tithe-r. He’s the guy who religiously pulls out his calculator, figures out 10% of his income and generously puts it away for charity. He will not touch that money because it isn’t his. I had one of that kind among my disciples. He’d already done the math when I said, “you give them something to eat.” Without a moment’s delay, he goes (and I’m paraphrasing here for sake of conversation), “Are you serious? It will cost us half a year’s income!”
The second type is the Pragmatic. The one that much like you, confesses that he has 5 loaves but is nervous about how much of it I will demand. He knows that it won’t make much of a dent in the need but he’s willing to pitch in and he desperately hopes that there will be enough left for him, after all that is asked of him.
The third type (and I confess I have a bit of a soft corner for these) is the Radical. I had one like that too. He’s the guy who, when I ask “Check how many loaves we’ve got?” says, “5 boss! Oh, and 2 fish!” Now that's my kinda Giving! He’s the one that picks up the 8th call, finds his wallet empty but checks his old jeans to see if he can find a couple of bucks stuffed into the pockets. He, son, is blessed. Find a guy like him and get him to tell you all the stories of how he put food on the table even when he had absolutely nothing. He is deeply acquainted with the miraculous.
But I’ll give it to you, the need is indeed huge. It’s easy to think there is no point to the very little you give. But it is there that I must correct you. The call to give is for your benefit as much as it is for the benefit of the one you give to. It's not that I’m in desperate need of what you have to give or that my whole feeding of the 5000 hangs on the 5 loaves you offer. No, son, the cattle on a thousand hills is mine and so are the fish in a thousand lakes and the grain in a thousand fields. I have no need that you have to step in and take care of for me. But how you respond to my call reveals just where your heart is.
It shows you what you trust to sustain you through this tough time – your bank balance or Me.
The lady who gave two mites and the one that anointed me with the perfume that cost a whole year’s wages both thrilled me to bits. How much they gave itself was quite irrelevant, but the heart with which they gave was the same – radical.
Son, I’m glad you gave 7 times! You did well. Perhaps, you could stop keeping track of how many of those calls you are responding to and you will be pleasantly surprised that the whole pandemic went by and you still didn’t spend a single day hungry.
Love,
The God of “And-2-Fish!”