Place God First in Budgeting and Spending - Day 13

September 7, 2012

"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.  But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others, they all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her povery, put in everything - all she had to live on.'"  Mark 13:41-44

To look around this world, there are plenty of injustices.  There is hate, ignorance, poverty, sickness, and pain.  As Americans, we are good at turning the other cheek.  In fact, we are practically raised to. We're taught to store away what you have, because, "in this economy,"  we can't be sure what tomorrow holds.  Many of us are taught that if someone doesn't have as much as us, they didn't work as hard.  We are taught to fear strangers, so we grow up not caring about our neighbors.

Through Jesus, all of that changes.  We learn to love every person and we find ourselves able to clearly see what is unjust.  Our hearts break for what breaks His.  We start to see just how many problems our world has.  We get stuck seeing how many hurdles there are to leap and become overwhelmed.  We begin to see how small we are and how much we lack.  It conveniently escapes our minds just how much we are blessed with.

The truth is that we can do something.  We are only on this earth for a short while, and, despite contrary belief, the goal is not to store up as much 'stuff' as possible.  Be have been entrusted with so much in this world, and the key is to do something with it that will live on after we are gone.  Envision how you would like the world to look.  Maybe your hear aches for people with addictions, or for people learning to devote their live to God, or maybe for the children.  Maybe you care about middle school students just trying to find their place, or maybe people with nowhere left to find a meal.  Maybe people in hospice strike a nerve, or hight school students who are close to facing 'the real world.'  These, and many more, are people our church reaches out to.  Great things are going on at St. Stephen and it's not often that one donation can cater to this many people.

Lord, we realize that our possessions can never fulfill us the way that You do.  We distract ourselves from the brokenness of this world because we don't feel big enough.  Remind us, Lord, that you gave us the power to change our world.  We feel your pain, and we're looking it in the eye.  We pray for Your guidance, as we choose to play a part in changing the lives of Your children, that, oneday, we will see Your kingdom here on earth.  Amen.

Author:  Emma Bauder