She Got the Money They Badly Needed, But Then She Did Something Unthinkable...

It’s one of my favorite stories.

A British preacher and his wife had hit rock-bottom financially. They were serving God faithfully, they had kids, and they worked hard, but they couldn’t catch a break. Bills were due. Things were looking very bad.

But they didn’t stop serving the Beloved. (Note: “Beloved” is sort of a nickname the Bible gives to God’s people, i.e. the Church worldwide.)

They were asked to preach somewhere in England that would require travel. They only had enough money for the petrol (i.e. gasoline)needed to get them there. It was a one-way trip, at least financially. They had no idea how they would get back home. But they went anyways.

Before I go on with this story, let me emphasize something: this is a true story. The British preacher’s name is Alan Vincent. He’s still alive at the time of this writing, though this took place decades ago. I heard him tell the story.

When they arrived at the church parking lot where they were preaching, someone from the church approached them and gave them money. The person said something like, “God put it on my heart to give this to you when you arrived, though I don’t know why.”

It was enough money to get them back home – and then some.

Mr. Vincent was shocked and overjoyed. But then he saw a look on his wife’s face. Inwardly he thought, “Uh oh.” It was that look.

You see, it was Easter Sunday, and his wife had always been outrageously generous – some might even say a little foolhardy – with her financial gifts that she gave. She looked at Alan and said something like, “I was so brokenhearted because we didn’t have an offering to give on Easter Sunday. I asked God to give me something that I could give to the Beloved. I want to give this in the offering this morning. I want to give it to God to thank Him for His provision, to thank Him for the Cross, to honor Him” – something along those lines (not an exact quote).

Alan’s reaction was along the lines of, “Uh, I think God gave that to us to buy petrol so we can get HOME!”

It wasn’t just the gas money problem. They were so impoverished at the time that they were having trouble buying the basics – even food.

Nevertheless, his wife had such an earnest, childlike spirit about wanting to give an offering on Easter Sunday. Saying no to her would have been like stealing a balloon from an overjoyed child, and then maliciously popping it. He relented and allowed the money, ever so painfully and reluctantly, to be given away that morning in the offering.

Rational thinking and basic common sense would declare that to be, well, ridiculous and unnecessary.

I think God saw it differently. It was a sweet smelling sacrifice – an act of pure love and child-like faith. She also believed that God would take care of her family. She didn’t have trust issues or a cynical reaction when she read Scriptural promises like, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and ALL these things will be added to you,” (Matthew 6:6, all-caps emphasis added).

That afternoon, a family had them over for lunch before they went home. The family had no idea about the financial struggles of the Vincents. During lunch, the hostess felt a heavy burden on her heart. Privately, she felt an urging in her spirit to go to her pantry and fridge, empty all of the food out of them into boxes, and give the food to the Vincent family, along with a very generous financial gift.

Yes, the Bible promises difficulties as well as blessings (i.e. when Jesus promises, “You will have trouble in this world). But there’s always a second half to that promise: "but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

My prayer today (join me if you’d like): Abba, thank You for removing fear from my life and replacing it with child-like trust and a sincere love for giving. Forgive me for being selfish at times, and caring more about myself than the people around me. Your perfect love casts out all fear. Please cast it out of my heart. I’m tired of obsessing over my problems. It shouldn’t be about what I have or don’t have or how much I’m struggling. I want it to be about how I love You and treat others in the midst of whatever it is I happen to have, however much or little.

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Remember, Remember, Remember...

A New Vision: Come and Join Me in the Gratitude Shop!

You might have noticed a few changes around the site – especially the homepage. The theme, vision, and name of the site is less about me and more about the vision God has given me: to inspire, train, and encourage others to develop a lifelong habit of gratitude and contentment in Christ, until they can say, “I have and I enjoy God’s life in abundance to the full until it overflows” (a paraphrase by John Franco of John 10:10).

And I have lately been inspired by the artisan movement in the United States – particularly among Christians – as chronicled by the amazing book “Jesus, Bread, and Chocolate: Crafting a Hand-Made Faith in a Mass Market World” by John J. Thompson (#JohnJThompson).

The way artisans relish labor-intensive projects, working with their hands for hours, day, weeks, months, even years on one project (or just a few) just blows me away. I want to have that same attitude in the way I approach my relationship with God – particularly in the way I develop a lifelong habit of gratitude and contentment that can thrive under any condition.

Although my topics will vary widely, the stated vision above will inform the tone, atmosphere, and content of the blog.

So come and join me in The Gratitude Shop! We will work on seeing God’s goodness with clearer vision together.

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Irrepressibly Joyful

Irrepressibly joyful.

That sums up “Cinderella” — the new one just out in theaters.

The movie caught me by surprise. It really moved me and led to some deep realizations. And why shouldn’t it? It’s a classic fairy tale invented long before our modern world’s nauseating shallowness, and it’s directed by a man (Kenneth Branagh) who is in love with the writings of William Shakespeare.

And this new film has Shakespeare all over it — thanks to Mr. Branagh.

I have a theory about WHY this movie is so very timely — and why that irrepressibly joyful Cinderella is now a major role model — but you’ll have to read my full review of the film to get it:

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"Story in the Stars" - Looking Up at Night Will Never Be the Same

"Story in the Stars" — the new documentary from best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker Joe Amaral — has an ambitious goal: prove that God created the heavens, including the 12 most famous constellations in history, for an express purpose: to tell a story. But the spiritual enemy came and twisted humanity’s view of the night sky by lying to us about the nature of the stars.

This movie exposes that lie and shows the amazing true story of the 12 constellations, their significance in the Bible and to the earliest names mentioned in the Bible, and how they tell a grand story about a Messiah who was destined to be born of a virgin, to die, to be resurrected with victory over the serpent, and to one day return.

Sound familiar?

It’s a fascinating journey. You can read my much more detailed review of the film here:

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Sighs That Escape: When This World Isn't Our True Home

Hebrews 11 and Revelation 21 has been on my mind. Both passages deal with the Christian belief that this world is not our true home, that we’re merely passing through, and that Heaven — and the new earth that it will support (Rev 21:1) — is the highest reality and our true home.

And somehow this led me to the film Labor Day with Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet, which was released in theaters almost a year ago, on January 31, 2014.

I know, random, right?

It’s actually a powerful movie. It’s not “Christian” (i.e. not made by a Christian studio or by Christians, as far as I know), but it contains general truths in it that I found inspiring and compatible/edifying to my faith.

The movie is about an escaped convict named Frank (Josh Brolin) who finds shelter (as he is on the run) with a single mom and her son. Here’s an excerpt from my original review of it from when I saw it in theaters:

"…in the background of their little island of happiness [the single mother’s home where Frank is hiding], Frank himself becomes symbolic of goals that every person on earth is chasing: joy, peace, fulfillment, a place to call home, a state of fixed security — happiness.

"In this film, the characters experience these things at certain moments, yet there is a constant tension of finiteness. He’s an escaped convict on the run, just passing through, seeking shelter temporarily. How could this happiness ever last? The story of Frank’s arrival becomes a parable.

"From a Biblical perspective, all of the joys and pleasures of this world — even the wholesome ones like raising a family, going to baseball games, celebrating birthdays — are fleeting sighs that escape into the sky the moment we exhale. Our hearts are not supposed to be invested wholly in finding happiness in this world because we were not made for this world. We are citizens of a heavenly city. In fact, Hebrews 11 calls us “strangers and pilgrims” on this earth.

"I doubt the filmmakers intended to create such a powerful sermon illustration with this film, but they did, whether they wanted to or not."

You can read the full review here (which includes parental guidance info; the film has some content that’s not family-friendly and might be too depressing for some people).

It’s amazing to find inspiration in unexpected places — even movies that we would deem “secular.” It just shows how the yearning for true joy, for permanence, for Heaven, has been written on everyone’s heart.

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Bright Star: A Poem for Christmas Day

Although this poem isn’t about Christmas, it’s a love poem that depicts a fiery love in a wintry season of life. It has the paradox of Christmas in it — the paradox being an event of fire (the fiery love of God breathed into human flesh through Jesus’ birth) that strikes its light in the bleak dark of winter. Even though I believe that Jesus was born during one of the warmer seasons, not the winter (the shepherds would not have had their flocks in open pasture at night in the winter; shepherds in those days had little make-shift shelters for their flocks during cold weather), the imagery remains true: Jesus, the Light of the World, was born in a dark, wintry night of human history. He was a summer fire birthed into winter deadness.

The poem has this fire-in-winter quality to it — the still fire of a star brooding, yearning over the frost of earth in its slumber — in this case I’ll pretend it’s a Christmas Eve slumber.

And, on that note, a happy, merry Christmas to you — I hope you enjoy the poem!

Bright Star by John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—

No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

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