Born to Give
At my Church we recently had a guest speaker, Brother Kyle Butt. Although still a young man, Kyle is a very gifted speaker and has a unique way of taking a message you may have heard a dozen times and making it brand spanking new! This particular sermon was on a topic that many of us find a little unsettling. No, it’s not about gay marriage, abortion or how you voted in the last election. It was about GIVING. I remember my reaction when I heard the topic and my first thought was, “Oh no, here we go…another sermon on giving because we’re not meeting budget.” You see, our congregation does a lot of mission work and benevolence and spends a lot of money to take the gospel to foreign countries as well as right in our own back yard. I expected another one of “those” sermons on giving, but much to my surprise Kyle’s sermon was different. He brought out things I had not thought about on the subject of giving. At 50 years old, I have listened to a large number of sermons on giving but I can honestly say that none have affected me like this one. I left the building that day with a new resolution to be a more giving person, not only in monetary ways, but just in general. More giving of my time, my talents AND my money. This leads me to the little story I’d like to share with you about God’s law of giving and how it became more real to me last week.
You see, I work in a Catholic based hospital with daily emphasis on Christianity, but even more so during the Easter season. Along with the daily spiritual reflections, we get to have a little secular Easter fun too. Our Human Resources department hosted an Egg Hunt for the employees and hid “golden eggs” all throughout the hospital for us to find. If you found one, you are very fortunate indeed because they held prizes of gift cards, Ipads, Ipods, all kinds of goodies! Now, historically my track record on finding the “prize egg” is not all that good. As a kid, I was lucky to find 3 or 4 eggs at an egg hunt, much less the coveted “Prize Egg”. But as a nurse friend and I scoured the hospital searching for eggs, my luck was about to change. There it was - tucked neatly in a pot of pretty green foliage in one of the waiting areas. Sparkling, shining, just waiting for me to rescue it from it's hiding place. When I pulled the golden egg out of the planter, several folks sitting around said, “I can’t believe you found one because tons of people have looked in that pot and didn’t find it.” I opened it up and inside was a slip of paper that said “Bi-Lo Gift Card”. (If you're not from here, Bi-Lo is a grocery chain and just happens to be my favorite!) I quickly headed down to the HR departement to redeem my prize. Although my golden egg only had a $15.00 gift card in it, I was still plenty egg-cited! I planned to give it to my daughter (who is a transporter at the hospital) when I got home so she and her husband could buy some diapers for their baby.
As I came through the lobby of the hospital, gift card in hand, I saw several Environmental Services workers (janitorial staff) who had just gotten off work and were waiting for a ride. One of them has always pulled at my heart strings because I get the feeling that she has had a very hard life. She is a black woman, probably mid-fifties, heavy, with dreadlocks and a bright gold tooth that shines (much like my golden egg) when you can get her to smile. Something told me to give that woman the gift card. I tried to ignore the still small voice at first thinking, “That would just be too weird.” But then I remembered my new resolution to be a more giving person so I motioned for her to come over to me. At first, she looked all around and behind her as if I was talking to someone else, then she pointed at herself and said, “Who, Me?” I said, “Yes, come here a minute.” She walked over and looked like she was afraid she had done something wrong. I put my hand on her shoulder and simply told her that I had found one of the golden eggs and wanted to give her the gift card that was inside. I went on to explain that I know how hard she works and I had just bought groceries and didn’t really need it right now and so on. She took it, looking a little bit confused, then we hugged and she said, “Ain’t nobody ever give me nothin’ befo.” I said, “Well, today’s your lucky day”, and quickly walked away because I could feel myself getting a little emotional. Walking back to my office I was feeling pretty good about this giving thing, but couldn’t help but wonder if my gift card had been for a hundred dollars would I have found it so easy to be generous? Although I’d like to think I would, I’m just not sure. But hey, we gotta start somewhere, right? Now, here’s where the story gets good. This “gifting” took place around 2:45 in the afternoon.
I went back to my office to work and at the end of her shift, my daughter came by and she was holding one of the golden eggs. She said, “Mom, the weirdest thing just happened! We had looked for eggs all day with no luck. Then I was wheeling a patient down the hallway and the fire alarm went off. The corridor doors slammed shut right in front of us and I looked down and there was this golden egg! I parked my patient and asked him to excuse me for a minute, then scurried over and picked it up, explaining to him about the egg hunt. When I got back to the unit, the nurses all said they had been looking for a golden egg for years and had never found one. Here I am, only been here for 3 weeks and I’ve already found one!” I asked her what prize her egg contained and I know you won’t be surprised to learn It was exactly the same thing I had given away to my new EVS friend. Knowing what time the fire alarm had sounded let me know that her big find happened about 3:00, just after I had returned from the lobby.
Now, if this isn’t an illustration of how God’s law of giving works, I don’t know what is. In the book of Luke we read, “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete, withal it shall be measured to you again.” Luke 6:38. I’ve read that verse a dozen times and heard it quoted more times than I can count! I’m pretty sure most of you have too, but I can’t help but wonder if we really believe it. If we do, why aren’t we out there giving more? Oh I know, many of you do, but why am I, personally, so slow to see and address the needs of those less fortunate than me knowing full well that as a child of God, He is going to take care of my EVERY need? He promises to do so, and I believe that promise. The law of giving is a natural law set in place by God himself and who am I to argue with that? Oh, I've always got some excuse, "They'll just spend it on booze" or "I would help that person but I'm in a hurry right now." Really? I want to be more like Jesus and I know he would have stopped to help or shared what he had without hesitation.
This giving thing is really cool and I’m excited about spending the rest of my days being a more giving person. I know, the gift card was just a small thing, but what a large, golden lesson I learned that day, hidden in a planter, tucked inside that golden egg just waiting for me to find.
Here’s hoping you have an “egg-cellent” day!
