The title of Chapter 6 is How Much is Enough?: American Wealth and a World of Poverty. Platt spends the chapter discussing the blind spot of materialism we have and how God wants us to open our blind eyes to the poverty of the world. To put a name to a number and if required, sell all our possessions to give to them. I have to be honest. How Much is Enough is not a question that is prominent on my mind this week. God is working through the “how much” with us. He’s using a simple envelope system to show me just how much falls like sand through our fingers and has opened my eyes to just how much that could do to help those in need.
No, the question I’m asking is Who Is Enough?
It’s easy to sell your possessions for the poor whose greatest choice in life is which item to pick out of a garbage can to eat. It’s easy to hand money over to a clinic that’s going to help a pregnant girl who would otherwise abort. It even makes me happy to sell a belt so people have clean water who otherwise might get cholera. But let me tell you, when you’re asked to give money to someone who isn’t working their fair share or who you know will squander it, it’s not easy. The cheerful giver is nowhere to be found in that moment. So I ask God, are they enough? Do they deserve my very hard-earned and saved money? Do I give it when it hurts to take out of that envelope? And I realize only in that moment is it a sacrifice. The world may say it was unwise and 99% of me says it’s unwise. But if I don’t give, children don’t have necessities and babies don’t have food.
I may be being vague and that’s on purpose but I’m just struggling through giving a little right now. At times I feel unwise and foolish and even a little angry. And I keep asking myself Who is Enough?
But who of us is enough? Am I better just because I’m the one holding the money? The money is not mine and if I truly believe that I have to extend it to where it’s needed no matter the cause.
I identify with the rich man from Platt’s church who was radically selling and donating many of his possessions who said,
“I wonder at some points if I’m being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, ‘I wish you would have kept more for yourself.’ I’m confident that God will take care of me.”
And so I give out of obedience and love for Him. And confident that if there’s justice to be executed, He will do it.
This is something I struggle with daily!
Becky recently posted…Jonah Study
Yesh, we don’t always get to pick and choose who we give to and what they do with it, huh. This Radical stuff is tough. Just when I think I’ve got at least one part of it nailed, BOOM. Not so much.
Marla Taviano recently posted…radical response chapter 6
we use the envelope system too!
i struggle with that too. it’s hard to give when i know the other person makes bad decisions financially. it’s equally frustrating when God asks me to give to someone who makes much much more than i do. years ago, i read a quote about charity. the man was asked about giving and he responded that his responsibility before God was to give. what that person did with the money was between them and God. that anecdote has stuck with me, especially in situations where someone needs money because they didn’t use what they had wisely. thank you for sharing.
When I struggle with those types of decisions and questions of worthiness, God just reminds me that His Son died for that person too.
Who is enough? That is such a powerful question! I can relate to the easiness of giving to some more than others. You make a great point though that we do not have control of what others do with the gift, we can only control that we give in the first place. Thank you for sharing this!
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