Apparently the other guys are off at the spa or something, and I found out last night that I’m in charge of content this week.
All the DJP-fans are appalled, and all the rest of you (the 2- or 3-dozen who appreciate my personal flavor) are now ready for the fireworks. Because I’m making this post during coffee break this morning, I’ll be brief.
Yesterday during the day my wife got a call from friends of ours who have been in the queue for adoption for years now, and they found out that sometime today they were going to bring home a new member of the family. They needed a place to stay last night, and of course we, being in the town where this new bundle of life and spirit has been given to us by our Provident and Sovereign God, we had a place for them.It made me think about the kinds of blessing God pours out for us in this life. Think about it with me – because this is not a health and prosperity message.
I’m thinking of the kind of blessing God pours out when we give up something we have to someone else. My friends have a nice, stable middle-class life – which is to say, they have it better than about 99.8% of all people who have ever lived. They have stable finances. They don’t miss any meals. They have some great kids already. They have video games and comic books and cable TV. They have a dog.
And what they did last night was to decide that having all that doesn’t really mean anything except in a self-referential way. It doesn’t mean anything except when we look at our own personal ledger books. In one sense, they were just fine, and well-endowed, and they had most of the stuff the needed and a lot of the stuff they wanted.
They decided instead to give up comfort, and give up some of their retirement, and give up stability and give up the balanced check book for someone they never met before – someone who had nothing at all. This little person had no one, and nothing, and didn’t even have a word to say “help me,” with. This little person in fact doesn’t even know what help would look like. So my friends decided to gather up the blessing of coming and giving away what they have so the sake of someone else. They chose grace rather than comfort; they chose love rather than judgment; they chose life rather than mere existence.
I’m at work today, and I wonder if I am doing the same thing, with the same gusto, for the same reasons, when God gives me so much more.
See you tomorrow.
