The third lesson is that things can be material for sacrifice. This is what is called the eucharistic life. The Father pours out His blessings on us; we, His creatures, receive them with open hands, give thanks, and lift them up as an offering back to Him, thus completing the circle.
When Solomon’s temple was about to be built, King David asked who was willing to give with open hands to the Lord. The people responded and gave gold, silver, bronze, iron, and precious stones. David then poured out his praise and thanksgiving:
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour,
and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is thine. . .
But what am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to
give willingly like this? For everything comes from thee, and it is
only of thy gifts that we give to thee. (1 Chronicles 29:11, 14)
The people joined in this praise, prostrating themselves before the Lord and the king, and the next day they celebrated with sacrifices of oxen, rams, lambs, and drink offerings, “with great rejoicing. “
“There should be no reluctance, no sense of compulsion; God loves a cheerful giver. And it is in God’s power to provide you richly with every good gift; thus you will have ample means in yourselves to meet each and every situation, with enough and to spare for every good cause.” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8 NEB)
It is said that Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, once a year sorted through everything he owned. Things that he had not used for a year were given away. He believed he would be held accountable for what he retained and there was no reason to retain things someone else could use as long as he himself had not needed them for a year’s time.
Some of us are hoarders. Frugality is one thing, hoarding another. Having lived in a country where an ordinary mayonnaise jar was worth fifty cents without the mayonnaise makes me extremely careful about what I throw away. I believe in conserving as many plastic bags and wire twists for closing them as I can readily use. My stinginess in the use of wax paper and paper towels amounts almost to an obsession. I have been known to dry out the paper towels used for blotting lettuce leaves—but I lived for eleven years in a place where there were no such things, so they are still luxuries to me.
I know one lady, however, who has cupboards full of cracked and chipped dishes, foil pans from frozen foods, plastic containers from cottage cheese and ice cream, and throwaway forks and spoons—quantities to last till the millennium. Most of us have some area of our lives that is cluttered and needs to be cleared to make space for useful things. Why do we cling to the unnecessary? Is it that our security lies in the accumulation of material goods? Is there a sense of satisfaction in opening a closet and seeing fifty-nine pairs of shoes, forty-two blouses or shirts? Can anyone reasonably make use of six different sets of dishes? (I am greatly indebted to a woman in my Bible class who, when she found out that some of the other women were planning to go together to buy me a set of ordinary crockery, remembered an unused set of Lenox china she had received for a wedding present. She gave it to me.)
Instruct those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be proud, and not to fix their hopes on so uncertain a thing as money, but upon God . . . Tell them to do good and to grow rich in noble actions, to be ready to give away and to share, and so acquire a treasure which will form a good foundation for the future. Thus they will grasp the life that is life indeed.
(1 Timothy 6:17-19 NEB)
This lesson leads naturally to the fourth, which is that things are given to us to enjoy for a while . . continued next week.
**Excerpt originally published in Discipline, the Glad Surrender, pp 108-110