Luke 21

Luk 21:1
And looking up, He saw the rich men
casting their gifts into the treasury.
Luk 21:2
And He also saw a certain poor widow
casting two lepta in there.
Luk 21:3
And He said, Truly I say to you
that this poor widow has cast in more than all of them

.

I don't know why this bothers me so much.
(probably because I don't give to the church)
but if I ignore that convicting fact for a moment
I can still spew my philosophical idealistic thoughts on the subject.
and that's really why I'm here, isn't it? (grin)

Why is it important
to point out that the widow gave more?
After all, the amount of good that can be done
by the larger contributions of the rich
is greater overall, isn't it?

If God has given a world that is abundant enough
to provide for each and every one of us,
then we can assume
that if some are in poverty
it is because others have taken too much.

In other words,
If people are suffering
The resources haven't been distributed properly
to meet everyone's basic needs.

I have the basic foundational belief
that the greed and selfishness of some,
causes the misery of others.

So I would applaud the willingness of the rich
when seeing them voluntarily giving their excess
so the church can help the widows and orphans
as I believe it should.

But by focusing on the amount,
by pointing out that she gave ALL
and others only gave SOME,
it seems to change the goodness of the gifts.

Was he saying ALL should give ALL?
That can't be it...

And why do we focus on the money so much anyway?
If the widows need blankets
and the orphans need clothes,
and I have an abundance of both,
Why can't I give the blankets and clothes directly?

These days it almost seeems to be a business,
to give cash to a "higher authority"
and let them decide how to use it.

If God allowed this abundance
to fall into my lap in the first place,
why wouldn't he also allow me to decide
where I can help someone with it?

and not just allow it,
but be pleased by it?
Isn't sharing and community what its all about?

So,
I guess I'm just a little sensitive
about being made to feel
like I gotta give cash
to some organization or another.

I want to be giving and generous
but I can barely keep up with my own debts.
Even though I have more "stuff" than I need,
when it comes to cold hard cash
I'm living in slavery to banks.

anyway,
I don't think collecting cash
is what the gospel is all about.

Of course I MUST admit,
that I don't do much of ANYTHING
to help ANYBODY.
I don't give blankets to widows.
I don't give clothes to orphans.

So Yeah, I feel guilty about that.
.