Finding the Extra
How does your mind work?
Are you an analytic thinker, taking apart each observation to try to understand how it came about, or are you a holistic thinker, capable of observing and experiencing without dissecting?
On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come. - 1 Corinthians 16:2
In today's reading, Paul gives the people of the church in Corinth a simple task, to set aside extra funds on the first day of each week. He tells them to do this to save time, a holistic concept, taking in the big picture, but there really could be more to it.
If we analyze it a bit we may see something else.
If I set aside extra money each week, I won't be tempted to spend it on desires, which could happen by the time Paul arrives. So, as a matter of process, Paul has devised a simple method for collecting more money.
He knows that what is out of sight is out of mind and that makes it easier for us to avoid temptation.
Of course the assumption here is that there is extra money in the first place, but if we develop a practice of looking for the extra money each week, eventually, we will find some, and when we do, we will set it aside.
Now if we take this one step farther and apply it to our lives daily, what will we discover?
And if we look for more than money, like time and other things we may have more of than we need, we may just find ourselves downsizing our lives, while upsizing our giving.
How we think about these things matters.
Oh, sure, it is hard to imagine giving up what we don't have, so we need to apply this process to getting ourselves out of the holes we may be in first, reducing our debt with the extras we find, for example.
Once we get to the point where we are living with less, we may find we don't need what we no longer seek.
When I think of the state of our churches today, with so many in need of funds, I wonder who is going to come along to save us from closing down one, two, a hundred?
But what if we think like Paul and give everyone something simple to do each week, what would happen?
Now, I know many who would say, we ask for more money and it doesn't come, but it the way Paul asks that makes a difference. He focuses on what he calls the extra.
He leaves it to them to decide what is extra, and yet they now he will see how much it is when he comes. The more they want to give, the more they find they can afford to give.
We need to help each other find the extra and put it ti God's work. Sometimes God's work is feeding the boiler as well as the poor.
As we head into what promises to be another cold season, those boilers are going to get very hungry, so why not start now. As the commercial asks, "What is in your wallet?"
More to come...
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