A man stopped by our church recently. I was hesitant to open the door at first because I was busy, trying to catch up and overloaded with things to do. A sixth sense within me said “Answer the door”, so I did. I’m glad I listened to my sixth sense because the man left me inspired beyond words.
At first I spoke with him through the door. Once I recognized him I let him in. He mentioned that he wanted to “leave his tithe” with the church. I immediately remembered how he used to do that more than a year ago before the Covid 19 Pandemic landed upon us. He had been faithful and regular in dropping “his tithe” by, as he put it before. I invited him back to my office and we had a wonderful, life giving visit.
The man shared how he has been out of work due to the pandemic (as a cook, his line of work was especially hard hit by Covid) but he was still blessed, still had his family, still was happy and he wanted to share his blessings with the church. He was articulate and passionate as he spoke with me. I was moved beyond words. Here was a man, out of work, who had every reason to complain or say “I have nothing to give” but yet he was going out of his way to bring his offering down to our church.
What an example of faithfulness. I had just personally experienced the story of the “Widow’s Mite” from out of the Bible. Wow!
I can’t help but wonder how faithful I am now that I have this man’s faithfulness to compare myself to? I wonder how I would react if I had been out of work for over a year? I wonder how positive my attitude would be in the same kind of circumstances as this man.
I don’t wonder about seeing faithfulness in action. I don’t wonder about seeing how a happy and positive attitude colors everything and every way we see react to things that happen to us in our life. I don’t wonder about how one person can inspire another.
By the time this man left my office I was taller, happier, more positive, more called to my own faithfulness than I can tell you. I think I weighed less too as some burdens had been lifted from my shoulders!
Do you know people who inspire you? Do you know people who measure how rich they are by the right criteria instead of how much money they make or how much money they have or how big their house is and what car they drive? I hope so. The other side of the coin on all of these questions is “Do we inspire others with who we are and what we exhibit in our own li”? I hope so.
God bless you for your faithfulness and for sharing your blessings with others.