daily java

Daily Java: For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.  (2 Corinthians 8:12)

When he was young, my son would always promise my wife stuff. He would make her a garden bigger than any garden any son ever made. He would clean the house, he would do other stuff.

His promises were grandiose and he rarely followed through. It wasn’t that he was a bad kid, it was just that he, like me, hated gardening, cleaning, all that. It was easy to promise, but not so easy to deliver.

There are those who make a garden with no effort. I even know people who love to clean houses. My wife used to love to clean all day, and then sit back in the satisfaction of a home that was comfortable. Everybody has their like zones, their stuff that they really enjoy doing.

Now if my wife asked my son to go and make up a rock song and play and sing it to her on his guitar, he would do that in a minute. That was what he liked to do.   

When we give to God, he doesn’t expect stuff that we are unable to do, nor stuff that we hate to do. There are, of course, some things I do because I need to do them as part of my pastoral responsibilities, but in general, God doesn’t expect from us what we do not have to give.

You can be generous to God in giving even if you do not have much money. You can give time and effort, mercy and sacrifice, encouragement, other things. God does not expect a big check from people who do not have the money. God does not expect a song accompanied by the guitar from a tone deaf person. God does not expect an embroidered altar cloth from an armless person.

He sure doesn’t expect a dance from a person like me, one with the grace of a crippled rhino.

We give from what we have. What we give is the outflow of our love for him and we give from what he has given us. Our talents, our abilities are such that we use them to worship him. That is the giving.

If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable. I love the song about the little drummer boy who played his drum for the baby Jesus. “I played my drum for him, I played my best for him.” All he had was a little drum, but from that small possession, he gave. And he didn’t give the drum. He gave the playing.

That is what the apostle Paul is writing about here. We give from what we have, not from what we do not have. I will never crochet or quilt anything for God. I hate doing it. However, others will and God will like it.

I will sing, I will write, I will preach, I will cook and serve – that is what I do.

And that is what he wants: honest, loving, generous giving from the well of our talent. And the more we give, the more he gives us to give.

That is his gift to us. After all, he gave from what he had: mercy, love, and sacrifice – that of his uniquely begotten Son – so that he could give us life and acceptance.