November 09, 2007
In Common
Twenty some years ago an elderly couple moved into a small house a couple doors down from my house. One of their friends helping them settle into their new home let me know right away that I could now look after them...seeing as how we had Christianity in common. I let our relationship be neighborly, including being available to them for emergencies, but I always kept them at arms length...I didn’t want to look after them. A few years back the husband passed away and more recently his widow sold her home and moved into assisted living. Even today she calls every few weeks to chat and hear the neighborhood news. All these years I’ve felt guilty for not doing more and resentful for feeling I should have done more…seeing as how we had Christianity “in common”.
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Gail;
-----“The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." (Luke 3:11.) And “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (I John 3:17-18.) “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” (James 4:17) Need is all around us, even in this prosperous land. Whether it be coats, cars, money, or time, if we have extra and someone in sight has want, it is a part of Jesus name to use our excess to fulfill that need. I suppose that is why the elderly couple’s friends were so presuming about your help.
-----But I am the worst about living up to this principle. Don’t get me wrong, I am not totally selfish. I never have had trouble shaving off a tidbit of my supply here or a crumb there to help lessen another’s plight. But being very much more generous has always been difficult. And now that I have a family, the decision to help becomes even more difficult considering my responsibility to my own.
-----Thankfully, John the Baptist was careful to indicate that generosity is served from excess. And Paul agrees in his second letter to the Corinthians by telling them to give according to what they had available rather than giving too much and becoming impoverished as well. We should never feel guilty when we have only enough for our own needs and no excess to spare. That goes for giving time and attention, too. There is so much need in this world that we would be picked apart like road-kill if we were asked to open up and give all that we have. I think our guilt about not giving beyond our means comes from the carelessness of almost every preacher that opens his mouth in front of a crowd. There is such compellation for them to carry on about “giving ALLLLL to Jeeesuuuus.” And my, don’t we mismatch that concept with our other similar, but not quite like-kind aspirations to give a little to the neighbors!
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