A
couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine, whom I will call “Shady
Shane” (because
that is what I always call him) and another guy won the 50/50 draw
at the
Bruins hockey game. When
they won, they
shouted, laughed and then took off to claim their prize.
Four
nights later, Shane texted me and said, “I am in front of your
house. Meet me at the
door. I have something for
you”.
When I opened the
door, Shane was
standing there with a card in his hand and he said, “I wanted you
to have this!” I took the
card, opened it and found some
money inside.
Right away, I said
to him, “Shady,
I don’t want your money! I
will keep the
card. That is really nice,
but I don’t need
the cash!” He insisted! I argued with him a little
more, but when it
became clear that he was not taking the money back, I thanked him
and he took
off.
Now, what happened
here?
Shane did not give
me that money
because he is nice – though he is!
Shane did not give
me that money because
I am nice – though I am!
He was under no
obligation to give
me anything, so why did he do it this time?
In his words: “I was
given
something I did not expect or deserve and I wanted to share it
with you!”
To me, that is a
perfect parable
to explain the motivation that Christians ought to possess: We have been blessed,
therefore, we bless
others.
We do not work for
God because we
are good. If everything
rests on my “niceness”,
not much is going to get done. We
do
not work because other people deserve it.
If the mission comes down to blessing those who are worthy,
that list
will be very short (and – incidentally – I will not be on it!).
We give simply
because something
has been given to us.
“If anyone is in
Christ, the new
creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is
from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry
of
reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in
Christ, not
counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us
the message of
reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though
God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf:
Be reconciled
to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might
become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
Shane’s card now
sits on my desk
as a reminder, not only of his generosity, but also of the reason
we go.
“Freely you have
received; freely
give” (Matthew 10:8).
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