A boy is born into an exceptionally wealthy family. His father loves him very much, and plans to share all of his wealth with this boy. Everything that's available to him would be available to his son at the proper time in his life. He builds him a beautiful home where they could live together, sharing a bond that can only be shared between a father and his son. As the boy grows older, he looks around and see's what stands before his eyes. He see's nice things, beautiful things, but he's oblivious to the riches that lay in wait for him beyond what he can see.
In time, he grows accustomed to what he's always known. What once gave him a sense of wide-eyed wonder gradually becomes commonplace. What was once a deep sense of appreciation grows into a sense of entitlement.
Over time, he begins to understand that his many brothers and sisters are also given nice things. His father begins to teach him that it is important that he share with his brothers and sisters, to look out for their best interest, and just as his father had done for him. To put their needs before his own when called upon to do so.
The boy doesn't like this idea. He has worked hard to take good care of his things, and after all, these are his things, not theirs. He begins to hide what he has from the other children, ensuring that he will be able to keep it to himself. He also begins to look at what they've been given, becoming jealous of some of the nicer things they have. He wonders why he wasn't given those things too. He falls into the belief that the more he has, the more valuable he himself becomes. What he fails to realize is that his true value doesn't come from what he has been given. His true value comes from how his father, who is far wealthier and generous than he could possibly imagine, see's him. What his father tries repeatedly to teach him, and what he fails to understand, is that the more generous he is with what he's been given, the more his father would give him in return. After all, as long as he lives in his father's house, everything he has ultimately belongs to his father anyway. It was never really his to begin with.
In the world today, especially here in the U.S., haven't we fallen into a sense of entitlement? Do we ever really sit back and consider the fact that we have been blessed financially far more than many other people in the world? If we look at the rest of the world, and even here in our own back yard, it won't take long for us to find vast numbers of people who live at or below the poverty level. And for many of these people, it's not a matter of whether or not they've made good decisions with what they have. Poverty is all they've ever known. The were born into it, and they remain in it.
Last week, I heard a story about a man who had traveled to a poverty stricken country. He had grown up here in the U.S., always clothed, always fed, and always with a roof over his head. As he stood watching a 4 year-old boy, crying at his mother's bedside, suffering from starvation, as his mother lay dying from circumstances we rarely see in this country, it occured to him that neither he nor this boy had any choice in where they would be born. They had simply been born where they had been born, by no choice of their own. It occurred to him at that very moment that while he had experienced a life of comfort and abundance, this young boy had been born into a life of hunger and sickness. Is this boy not one of God's children just as much as we are? Does God not love this boy as much as He loves us?
So, what is my point? Are we to give up all that we have and travel to some far away, poverty-stricken nation to suffer along with him? No. What I'm saying is this: We've all been blessed far beyond what much of the world has ever known. But just like the boy I wrote about earlier in this story, all that we have ultimately belongs to our Father in heaven anyway. He's blessed us with it, and He can take it all away without a moment's notice.
What I also know is this: In Luke 6:38, Jesus said the following:
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
I know that there are people out there who are trying to promote a "prosperity gospel" which claims that if we trust God, we will become rich. That is nothing short of heresy. God never promised that He would make us rich, and that's not what this verse means. What He has said is that He has given to us freely, and as such, we should do the same for others. He has also given us His word that whatever we give up for Him, we will be rewarded for in far greater measure.
It may be in this life, or it may be in the life to come, but God has given us His word on this. All that we need is the faith to believe that and act upon it. God will decide how, when and where we will be rewarded for our acts of generosity.
It all begins with that first small step. Maybe it's some pocket change for a homeless man, maybe it's a small donation to a local food pantry, maybe you've been blessed enough to do far more. But take that first step, then stand back and be amazed at what God does with that small act of kindness. After all, just like the boy earlier in this story, we have no idea how many riches await us in our Father's house.
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