Giving
Scripture Reading — Mark 10:17-31
“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
—Mark 10:21
I heard the activist and author Shane Claiborne tell of someone who actually did this. Claiborne showed a video of a young man who won two sports cars, some appliances, and a wad of cash on The Price Is Right game show.
If you’ve ever seen that show, you know how it is when people start winning: they jump, yell, cry, and pump their fists in the air, and it’s clear that the biggest, dreamiest thing they have ever imagined is coming true. And they are happy.
But this guy was different. After the show, he sold everything he had won, took the money, went to a village in Africa, and bought food, clothes, medical supplies, and equipment for growing gardens for the people who lived there. Then he lived there with the people for a while.
Most of us tend to think happiness is winning stuff in the game of life. In that video, however, the young man said giving it all away was the greatest thing he had ever done. And he was happy, with a deeper, richer, more eternal kind of happiness than any other he had ever known.
If you are deeply unsatisfied or simply bored (and therefore much less than happy), have you considered doing something lavishly self-sacrificial for God?
Lord, I have so much. My soul gets clogged with it all. Move and shape my will. Make me a generous Christian, ready to serve and bless others at all times. This scares me a little, so I need your help. Amen.
About the author — Keith Mannes
Keith Mannes serves as pastor at Highland Christian Reformed Church in McBain, Michigan. Keith and his wife, Alicia, recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary,
and they are thankful for their three children—Eben, Charis, and Breanna.
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