Giving to the Poor

Well, it's after Thanksgiving and you know what that means: all those bell-ringers outside your favorite stores, asking for your change. I passed one today, coming out of Wal-Mart, and I had change in my pocket. I kept walking. As I got out into the parking lot, I remembered the verse, "Even as you do unto the least of these little ones, you do unto me." I paused, and I would like to say that I turned around and gave him my change, but I didn't. I promised myself, "I'll give to them next time." And then I got in my car and drove home.

I help out on an excel forum regularly, too. There are some interesting problems people have, issues where I have to spend 20 minutes trying to come up with a solution for them and am forced to get creative to do so. But then there are issues that seem so simple to me that I have to wonder whether the poster even tried to solve the problem on their own and annoying posts where the poster does a poor job explaining his/her requirements and the thread quickly becomes 12 posts when 3 would have done it. Sometimes, when I feel like not answering, I remember the verse, "And who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin." I wish I could say that always makes me stay on and answer these questions as best as I can, but it doesn't.

What's the point of writing all this? That good is so hard to do? No, we all know that already. Sometimes, we just get selfish, be it with our time, money, or even love. I'm writing this to question rather how much is good to give. Can we give too much of ourselves? Does it become wrong at some point to continue giving?

Mark 12:41-44 has the story of the widow who gave two mites, and Jesus said she gave more than all the rich men had because she gave all she had. The Bible also says, though, that a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children (Proverbs 13:22), which seems to say we're not to give away all. How do we reconcile the two?

In America and most other first-world countries, it is expensive to bring up a child. It is expensive to feed the homeless here, too, or to take care of those who can't care for themselves. Is it right that 50 African children should starve so that our child may eat and have a good time with his or her friends? Is it right that the man on the street should be denied because it costs more to feed him for a day than such a child for a month?

Conversely, how can one justify denying one's own children when one has the resources to avoid that denial? How can one say that man on the street is not valuable enough to be saved?

And how much of our earnings should we devote to helping others? How much of our time? How much of our love? Is it counted righteous for us to work second jobs so the money from those jobs can help the poor? Would it be better for us to instead use that time to counsel those around us?

The only answer I have, unfortunately, is one that doesn't address anyone's specific situation. It is two things: 1. that we must always be willing to give as God wills us, even if that means our very lives for His sake (though that particular sacrifice is only asked of a relative few), and 2. that we have a heart to serve others.

We don't know whether God asked the widow to give all that she had. We don't know what became of her on this earth. But she had a heart to give to God, and that heart burned so brightly that there was nothing she held back from Him. She may have been rewarded richly on this earth and lived like a queen from that day forward. She may have died in poverty, starving. We don't know. What we do know is her love for God was worth more than anything she had on this world.

Is it worth that much to you?