|
GRINNING WHILE GIVING #3
NEEDING A HEART TRANSPLANT
Back in September 1997, when the world was gasping
over the world’s biggest charitable contribution, given by one Mr. Robert
Edward Turner III, Newsweek magazine actually told two stories. One was
Ted Turner’s, of course, how he decided to give a billion dollars to the
United Nations, and then very humbly leaked the news by calling Larry
King, who then made sure all the breathtaking details were reported in
living color on CNN, the network founded by a guy named . . . Ted Turner.
But there was another story in the follow-up feature. A San Mateo woman
named Irene Scott, 83 years old, walked into the office of Dr. James Hutchinson.
Back in the 1950s, he was the only African-American doctor in the county,
and also the only one who was willing to treat her even when sometimes
she couldn’t pay. Well, now here in 2003, she was finally able to pay,
and she quietly handed her doctor two envelopes.
Envelope #1 was her payment for her most recent medical bill. But there
was that second envelope, with a check in it for a thousand dollars. So
we heard about a billion from Turner and a thousand from Mrs. Irene Scott.
Now, what was the thousand dollars for? Dr. Hutchinson had set up a scholarship
fund for local medical students, and she wanted to contribute to it.
Now you’re probably thinking that maybe here was a woman who had struck
it rich, started a company or invented some software. No, in fact, that
gift of a thousand dollars was more than her retirement income for an
entire month. It was a nest egg she’d built up over four years, a few
dollars at a time out of a monthly $736 from Social Security. And now,
with genuine happiness that certainly matched that of Ted Turner’s, she
gave that money, her way of “(quote) doing the right thing.”
Well, it’s a very touching story, but does it compute? Can we feel the
same joy when we do the right thing, and especially when we give to the
cause of Jesus Christ? That Newsweek spread had many color photos of the
rich and famous people and how much they’ve given recently. Twenty-five
million for earthquake damage at UCLA by one rich couple. A twenty-million
dollar bequest to Southern Methodist University. Fifteen million from
the chairman of Home Depot, given to the Atlanta Jewish Federation. And
most of the color mug shots showed smiling people — smiling because of
the joy of giving, and maybe also because there were millions more back
home growing on more trees.
But how about those of us who struggle to be happy about giving? What
does it take for the Christian to experience true giving joy?
The dynamic Willow Creek pastor, Bill Hybels, teamed up with Rob Wilkins
recently to write a Christian bestseller entitled Descending Into Greatness.
Of course, we’re not born wanting to “descend” into greatness; we want
to “ascend” into great wealth. We don’t want to give; we want to collect
and suck in and ride bull markets. A human being’s natural instinct is
to hoard and collect and to exploit.
Hybels tells the story of a man who lived like the typical human being
would. He devoted his life to riding the elevator UP. Everything he did
was done with one goal in mind: getting to “Easy Street” sooner than all
the others. A big executive home, nice cars, great vacations. He poured
his every energy into following this most natural of worldly instincts;
in fact, he sometimes, without meaning to, put his wife and kids on the
second-place pedestal so he could pursue more and more and more wealth
. . . for the purpose of making life wonderful, ironically, for his wife
and kids.
Well, he ended up on the telephone with Hybels, tears running down his
face. He’d finally made that last big deal, that final market coup. At
last, after years of pushing and e-mailing, he’d just moved into that
dream house. Tragically, though, he moved into it all by himself. His
wife and children had finally abandoned him. And Hybels observed:
“The price tag of his dream had cost him everything
of value. He found himself spiritually alienated, relationally isolated,
emotionally drained, and physically broken. All that was left was a pile
of things that mocked him.”
Here’s the point. Friend, if we adopt the world’s value
system — or if we simply follow what the built-in “natural” thing is to
do — it’s going to be wrong. When it comes to value and truth, the world
is wrong and so are our hearts.
In digging around for material for this week’s sermons, David couldn’t
help but notice an interesting tidbit. Wednesday, December 3, 2003 is
the 36th anniversary of the first heart transplant. Maybe you remember
how Dr. Christiaan Barnard, back on this date in 1967, successfully completed
that first transplant in Cape Town, South Africa.
And you know, we can’t learn to love giving to God unless we get a new
heart. We’re selfish people! Why would anyone with common sense take their
hard-earned money and put it in an offering plate? From the world’s point
of view, that’s as foolish as playing the state lotto game. But to the
Christian who has a new heart, who grasps the value of God’s eternal kingdom,
then sensibilities are turned on their head. Then investing in the Body
of Christ, in the eternity of heaven, becomes the wisest — and also the
most joyous — experience a man or woman can ever know.
Christians today often fall into a trap of bashing the poor wanderers
in Old Testament stories who made so many foolish mistakes. But have you
ever noticed a sweet testimonial over in Exodus chapter 36? God had just
given instructions on how a temple was to be built there in their encampment.
He was going to dwell among them in a very visible way. And somehow, even
though they had made so many mistakes and lived foolishly at times, somehow
these struggling, newly-freed slaves caught a glimpse of this new life.
A life with God as their protector. After years of scratching and struggling
in slavery, and after such a short time of freedom where they could have
their own things — really own a few little trinkets of their own — they
were invited to give.
Talk about contrary to instinct! Give? When we just barely “got”? But
verse five tells us something incredible:
“They [the skilled workers] received from Moses all
the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing
the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning
after morning. So all the skilled craftsmen . . . left their work and
said to Moses:” [now notice this] “The people are bringing MORE than enough
for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”
In fact, Moses — and this has to be a first and also
a last in all religious fundraising — had to send word out through the
camp: “Don’t give any more! Stop! We’ve got enough.” But here was a shining
moment where people defied the “CW” — the conventional wisdom. They did
the right thing instead of what the world might consider the wise thing.
And you know, friend, it really does take a kind of heart transplant.
To be happy when giving money away . . . not for headlines or for a tax
deduction or for increased upper-crust notoriety with your caviar friends,
or even for that billion-dollar glow of good feelings that you might get.
Good feelings are fine, but it takes a heart transplant to completely
realign your life on a faith relationship where you trust in God instead
of dollar bills. It comes down to that, really. Do you trust in God or
in dollar bills?
Pastor Tony Evans tells a wonderful story about his young days as a financially
struggling seminarian. He and his wife drove an old, beat-up 1971 Grand
Prix. Their take-home pay was $350 a month, and they had to feed three
ravenous kids on that. But you know, despite human instincts to grab onto
every nickel and clutch it to your heart, the Evans family always gave
God the first $50 out of that painfully meager $350. It was hard; it was
the opposite of what you’d think to do, but this man had had a heart transplant.
He knew it was better to lean on God than on his salary-making prowess.
He was actually tempted one month, though, to hold out a bit of that $50
to get the car a tune-up. But they prayed about it, and decided no. “We’ll
honor God first, and trust Him to help us with the car.”
Almost the next day as he was driving along, there was suddenly smoke
coming out. Was the engine overheating? No, this time the whole car was
on fire! The car was literally burning up! He jumped out, ran to a pay
phone, and called the fire trucks. And then he was tempted to use a second
dime and get God on the line and tell heaven a few things too. As in,
“What are You doing to me, Lord?”
They towed his car in, and all the while young Pastor Evans was thinking
about that $200 insurance deductible. Where in the world could he get
that, when he could barely afford the $50 he’d been sending up to God?
And he mentioned to the car dealer, “Man, I don’t know what to do about
the deductible. I haven’t got that kind of money.”
And the guy said, “What deductible?”
“The 200 bucks,” Evans said, still upset.
The man pushed some papers toward him. “Mister, you didn’t read your own
policy very well. Look right here in the fine print: ‘In case of fire,
no deductible.’”
As things turned out, Tony Evans got a free tune-up, new alternator, distributor,
wiring, the works . . . since the fire had chewed all those things up.
He confesses later:
“You would have thought we were in church the way I
shouted and carried on in that car dealership. My car was almost brand
new under the hood, where it counted, and all it cost me was putting God
first.”
Yes, friend, it’s called a heart transplant. And with
God that’s always a successful operation.
|
