More Than All: Giving to God's Glory

In their book, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert discuss different types of poverty, and assert that, because of the Fall of mankind, we all find ourselves in a state of poverty. We can be impoverished spiritually, at odds with the God who created us. We can be impoverished with regard to ourselves, "Poverty of Being": we do not see ourselves as God intends. We might possess a "Poverty of Community": we do not see others as God sees them. Lastly, we may be impoverished with regard to the rest of creation, those things we are all given to steward: animals, flora and fauna, our entire planet (John Stott, in his book Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling, referred to this as "Creation Care"). Point being, in our Western world, we tend to look at poverty as those things we lack financially; but there are many more layers to this onion we call "need."

Jesus called His disciples and by extension, each one of us, to notice a widow (Mark 12:41-44; Luke 21:1-4). She gave two small coins in contrast to the larger amounts given by others who could well afford to do so. Jesus says she "put in more than all." Did He mean more than the others who entered the temple before her? more than the others that day? I think He meant more than anyone and everyone combined --more than all, Jesus said. This woman gave her utmost, "all she had to live on," some translations read. Think of what those two small coins may have represented! They may surely have meant bread to her, but what if they meant more? What if the "all she had to live on," the "all" represented by those two small coins, was more abstract, like hope? We think hope comes from having all our bills paid, or a little bit of savings in the bank; we breathe a sigh of relief and allow ourselves to embrace the possibility of a home improvement project or a weekend getaway --hope! Rather than hope in those things, she released all her hope to the One who offers to do exceedingly abundantly above, who gives life in abundance? Heavenly Father, I am all Yours!

What if giving up those two small coins meant not paying her mortgage? What if she was choosing instead to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, to put herself completely in the care of the Holy Spirit and go wherever He led? to give up her home and those familiar things, and start anew in a place God had for her? to no longer see herself as "just a widow," but see herself as an ambassador of Christ? I'm not sure whoever started the rumor that God "would never allow" you to lose your home or "would never allow" the bank to repo your car, but God will do whatever it takes to bring glory to Himself and good to His children. And maybe this widow was all in: Mould me! Make me! Do something radical with these two small coins! Maybe it was this Poverty of Being, a poverty she trusted God would eradicate through Messiah, that was the impetus for her gift.

What if giving those two coins meant going to debtors' prison where she could share the Good News of Jesus with those spiritually impoverished? Perhaps this was the poverty she gave out of, Poverty of Community. What if she'd previously looked down on those in prison? God, whatever You do, just don't ask me to minister to the lawless! But now, giving out of her poverty, she could love them as Jesus loves. 

What if giving those two small coins meant she would no longer budget her finances for a medical treatment that harvested rare plants to cure her? What if she chose to no longer deplete natural resources for the sake of treating her hair loss or her pain or her swollen feet? What if she was giving out of a desire to rightly steward God's creation?

Absent the redemptive, resurrectionary, renewing work of Jesus at the cross, every one of us is --all of Creation is! --impoverished in some way. In Him, we have all we need; we are made whole. How much are you willing to give?