Thankful Giving

Today is one of those holidays best known by the foods we eat. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potato pie. Pumpkin pie. Pecan pie. Pies in general. Cranberry jelly in the shape of a can. So food oriented this day has become, most weathermen call it "Turkey Day." Even the President is expected to pardon a turkey from his eminent execution meant for his lunch. (I do wonder what he eats if not turkey? Maybe he only pardons one turkey from a whole bunch of death-row turkeys, so that way he can still eat some.)

I hope that this day has more meaning to you than just food and football. I just watched the Pixar movie "Wall-E" where all these people on a spaceship don't have to lift a finger to do anything, and they're all just grossly fat. They were born on the spaceship and so were their parents and grand-parents going all the way back 800 years. They just laid around on these floating mats and let robots do all the work. Maybe if I hadn't just celebrated Thanksgiving I would never have thought about connecting today's feast with how those folks lived on board the BNL spaceship (Buy in Large - yeah, pretty gross, huh?).

I have never known hunger, and that is a fact for which I am thankful. There really are children who die every day from starvation in harder parts of the world. It's hard to even imagine. Today while we were feasting, cries went up to heaven for precious lives lost because they had no food or water.

I encourage you to free up your mind from the commercialized aspect of the approaching holidays. It's something hard to shake free when we've grown up with the "holiday spirit", but lights, music and food can hypnotize us straight through the next month if we let it. We'll be going through the motions and getting into the mood of the season. For businesses it is big bucks. Advertisements entice and tempt. We'll start to want things that we otherwise wouldn't have wanted because we saw it on TV or the web, just because it's being promoted. We'll start buying things for the people we know and love, just because we would feel guilty for not getting them anything. We don't want to hurt their feelings. Are you planning on charging a lot of your Christmas this year? Don't do it! Give what God has enabled you to give! Even if it is only your time! Build friendships and help others. Buck against the purchasing for the sale's sake. I'm not saying don't buy anything. Just ask God what he wants from you. Could He want you to pay someones water bill? Could He want you to help them in a tangible way? Are you a handy man? Are you a good cook? Build and bake and fix with your own two hands, and build friendships.

There is a story that Jesus told that I have always found fascinating. Here it is:

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

When Jesus says that we should use unrighteous mammon (wealth) to make friends, He is telling us to plan for the future. The steward brought favor on the master from the debtors for reducing their debts. In the same way we can bring favor towards our God by spending our wealth (and time) in ways that bring them to Christ. A good rule of thumb is to look at all your wealth as God's spending account He has hired you to manage in order to bring more people into His family - His kingdom. It's all about motives. I hope that as the red and green pre-wrapped presents stare you down in the aisles of Walmart and Target, you don't get caught up in the "it's Christmas season so I've got to buy something" mindset. Before you go the store, take the time to shrewdly plan out how your investments will yield the most for your Master. And think outside the retail box. Don't just count your blessings - share them!

--Johnie