Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

• 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

• Luke 6:38

“The limit of giving is to be the limit of our ability to give.”

• C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Introduction

This is between the anniversary of the passing of C.S. Lewis and his birthday.  He passed away one week before his birthday.

His statement here almost seems nonsensical, but his point bores deep into our souls.

My wife was about five years old when her father was invited by his employer to the yacht club.  My future father-in-law was the accountant, but he was short on means with five children by this point (eventually nine children).  He would have no chance to go to the prestigious yacht club unless invited.  He was asked to bring one of his children.  He usually rotated which child would go out to eat.  My wife got to go.

She was brought up like me in some ways.  You had to clean your plate.  She saw all the food on her plate, and she could never eat it all.  While her father and his boss were talking, she snuck away to the fence that separated the rich from the extremely poor.  She took bites of food and served the poor children between the wires of the fence.

The employer saw her and reprimanded my wife’s father.  He explained to her how feeding them might start a riot.  They might crush the fence and charge onto the grounds.  This infraction might lead to my wife’s father never getting another chance to visit the yacht club.  It became my wife’s last chance to do so.

She saw children starving.  She had to clean her plate, and she was a small child and unable to do that.  She thought what she did was the right thing to do.

Although, she did not dedicate her life to Jesus until she was nearly fifty years old, she had a heart for the poor.  She had a heart to see people well-fed.  And she loved to cook.  And she rarely drove past a panhandler on the side of the road without rolling down the window and giving him five dollars.

On one of those occasions, I said, “If that was our last five dollars with no prospects of ever getting another dime, you would give it to the beggar, and we would be the ones without.”

She replied, “That’s a terrible thing to say.”  Then after a couple of minutes of silence while I drove home, she said, “You said a terrible thing, but I think you are right.  I have been hungry in my life, and I never want anyone to feel that in their life.”

What is our “ability to give?”  Is it the cash on hand when we pass by the panhandler?  Is it ten percent?  Is it beyond the ten percent as long as the hungry keep coming, but knowing that we have bills to pay and we need to eat?  Or, is it like my wife, you see someone in need, and you are willing to give your last dollar?

Lewis’ quote is vague on purpose.  We have to examine our hearts to determine what our limit of giving is.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.