Opening Someone Else’s Present

Harare-based expats working for international aid organisations have fallen into the lap of luxury. Living in opulent houses with tennis courts and swimming pools, they drive the latest model SUVs and wait impatiently for their generators to switch on automatically after yet another power cut. Whilst their wives apply themselves to a gruelling circuit of Harare’s best coffee shops and restaurants, the husbands toil in air-conditioned offices, safe from the ravages of the most clement climate in the world. It requires sacrifice to help the poor! And, in the name of all that is right and fair, they must be rewarded accordingly.

                It may come as no surprise, then, that only a few cents in every dollar donated end up reaching the intended beneficiaries. Recently, donors have found this (understandably) offensive. It hardly seems right for those that have been entrusted with passing on a gift to use it for their own luxury.

Yet how often do you and I do the same thing? The fact that you can access this blog on the internet via your own PC or laptop places you amongst some of the most privileged, materially blessed people on the globe. But here’s the rub: what qualifies you to be the beneficiary of such privilege? How many of the material blessings you enjoy can be attributed directly to you? How would things be different today if you had been born a Dinka tribesman in the Sudan?

One might say, “I work hard for the money I earn every month”. But so do gardeners in Harare; and some have bosses that earn 25 to 50 times what they do. Is a boss 25 times more worthy of reward than his employee? Reader, you and I do not deserve the material blessings we receive. They are a gift from God. Paul calls your income a grace (1 Cor. 9:8), namely something that is not earned or deserved, but that is freely given by God.

But is the abundance God gives us intended for us alone, or does He have other beneficiaries in mind? Has he entrusted us with gifts that were not intended not for luxury but for needs?

In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul encourages the Christians at Corinth to take up an offering for their poor brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. He writes:

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality,15 as it is written: "He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”

From this we see that your “harvest” can be “too much” if you spend it all on yourself. When God gives me a plentiful harvest, I may take some for my own needs, but the rest God gave me to pass on (cf 2 Cor. 9:8-11). Yet how often do we spend on our own luxury what God intended to meet another’s need?

When God gives you a gift or talent, it is almost always intended for someone else. Take the spiritual gift of healing - it is a gift in my hands for someone that needs healing. It is not a gift that I may open for myself.