Just Hold On

Generosity

Acts 20:35 (New International Version, ©2010)

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Repetition is such a necessity for effective training. You need to be told something a number of times before it eventually takes hold and sinks in. I can't remember the number of times that I have heard the above quotation. I have endeavoured to practice this, to live out the concept in what I do and say. However, it's only over this weekend that I began to grasp some of the reasoning behind this concept.

I think part of the problem is 21st Century culture. If I am injured, society teaches us that I need to seek compensation (I did a separate post on 'Blame Culture', a while ago. See the link here). If I do something for someone, society says that I expect to get adequately compensated for the task. "You don't get something for nothing!"

Now, I look at this a little differently. I've worked in a whole host of voluntary roles for pretty much all of my life. Social clubs, Fan clubs, Advisory Councils, Committees, Scout Groups, and of course Church. If something catches my eye as being worthwhile and exciting, I'll be there, showing an interest. It's not what it earns me that motivates me. I have found this attitude causes confusion - people simply can't grasp why I could do something for nothing. It doesn't make sense to them.

At the weekend the meeting touched on the subject of sacrificial giving, as part of the launch of the Army's Self-Denial Appeal for this year. The subject matter has really challenged me to rethink my whole reasoning for giving. Not to encourage me to give - I do that anyway - but to examine why I give. Giving of your time and talents freely, and sacrificially. Giving, because there are folk out there who have so much less than you. Giving, because without your gift, they would more than likely continue to go without. Giving, and not expecting to be paid back. Giving until the pips squeak...

We have a practical example here in the incident described in Mark 12:41-43, the donation of the "Widow's Mite". In this example, Jesus told his disciples the widow had given so more than all the others. The rich folk donated only a small proportion of their wealth; the widow put in two small coins, however this was all she had.

"If not you, then who?
If not now, then when?"   - Hillel the Elder

I guess that this is a topic I'll come back to again this month. I'll leave you with this quotation:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”  

  - John Wesley

Blame Culture

In these supposedly enlightened times, there seems to be one area where we as a society seem to be taking a huge backward step. It's engrained in our dealings with each other, fed to us by regular ads on the TV, reinforced by our legal system. It's the 'blame culture' we find ourselves in.

We are repeatedly told every day that 'where there's blame, there's a claim'. This constant search for compensation appeals to our base nature, encouraging us to seek material gain where we can; we see ourselves as victims, who can then seek compensation whenever we are injured. My mum and dad's generation survived hardship and gunfire when they fought during World War Two. It would appear that my own generation can only think of suing someone if they trip over a paving slab.

Yes, sometimes things happen in life that aren't your fault. However, scripture encourages us to forgive, not to blame. Yes, I know it's difficult - I've been working through some issues in my own life, deep wounds that have not healed despite many years. What has become clearer lately is that some of those wounds were clearly caused by others. And I have to forgive those who caused them before I can move on. And I have to forgive myself, too! Sometimes, dealing with these things takes so much out of us that we can't do it without Christ within us. But He wants to deal with these things too...

However, perhaps we have to consider there's issues where there's no-one else to blame - we have to accept responsibility for our own actions. If we are late for work, is it your fault or the train's? We blame the train company more often than not. If you haven't got a clean shirt in the morning, who do you blame for that? Run out of money? Perhaps you should look at some of the things you've been buying... There comes a point when you can't keep blaming other people. Remember the Serenity Prayer ? Can you easily identify the things that you can change?

Galatians 6:7 (New International Version)
A man reaps what he sows.

Who Sinned?

John 9:1-5 (NIV)
1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.
5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

The thoughts here come from reflecting on some of the discussions from a course I'm attending on Wednesday nights, and brought once again home to me once again as part of my daily reading on Thursday morning (see WordLive ). It's interesting to read this passage after reading the book of Job last week.

When things go well, we're often very pleased with ourselves. ‘God is blessing me’, we might say. However, what about when things go horribly wrong? What have we done wrong? Interestingly, that's exactly what the disciples thought in the passage above. They assumed the man’s suffering was due to God’s judgement, but the Lord puts them right here. I know enough about disability from what I've learnt over the years from my own family members and from my working life not to make these sort of assumptions, however it's interesting to see what Jesus teaches us here.

You see, Jesus doesn't give out blame, he goes out of his way to give blessing - he takes the opportunity to make things better, not to make them worse by pointing fingers. There's something for all of us to remember when we review this from within the 'blame culture' that we see all around us.