A Christian couple wanted to move to a new city, so they went to a real estate agent. They asked the real estate agent to help them find a home. He said, “Sure. What’s your take-home pay?” They told him a figure, and he responded, “Ah! Then you can afford this kind of house in this kind of neighborhood.” The couple thought, “Ok, great. This is the way it’s done. This person knows what he’s talking about. We’ll do what he recommends.”
Then after they bought the house and moved into that neighborhood, they realized they couldn’t even come close to giving away 10% of their income to the church, or to important causes, or to better other people’s lives.
This is a typical story, and it reminds me of a point David Brooks made when he spoke at Incarnation on a recent Tuesday night. David reported that twenty years ago, two-thirds of Americans gave to charity. Now, fewer than fifty percent of Americans give to charity.
A great deal of our power is our money. And the world assumes that your money is for you, your power is for you. So the world says, “You have to live out to the margins. You have to spend as much as you can on yourself. The idea that you should be giving a significant portion away is ridiculous.”
My response is to quote the Apostle Paul: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18)
It is difficult to not be co-opted by the world. It is difficult to receive power and not be co-opted by that power. But if we want to be people God uses, we must know how to do this.
If you supervise people at work, you must know how to take the blame for their mistakes (and not throw them under the bus) because Jesus took the blame for you.
If you have children, you must never withhold your love but, rather, lavish them with it through affection, forgiveness, and establishing firm and proper boundaries because this is what our Heavenly Father does for you.
If you have time, talent, or treasure – all those key stewardship words – you must use it to bless other people because each of these things is a way God has blessed you.
The point is that WE are the manifestation of God’s power on earth. As people who live with hope and cling to the Gospel, we have to be. And God knows the world needs our witness.
So let’s own our power. And harness it – for the sake of the One in whose loving and generous image we are made.
Adrian+