When I was in high school, our youth group sat on the second and third rows in the auditorium during the worship service. (No one ever sits on the front row. I’m assuming we’re saving the best seats for our guests.) There were some Sundays that the group was more engaged than others, but I remember a particular Sunday when the sermon was about giving. The preacher said that sometimes he wished the guys passing the collection trays would just throw them like Frisbees from one end of the youth group row to the other, because it never stopped to have money added to it on those rows anyway. We all laughed at the thought of trays flying by, but it made us think. Most of us had bought into the idea that whatever we might have the ability to give was insignificant compared to the needs of the church budget. He taught us that day that we were wrong about that.

 

In Mark 12, a widow approaches the offering with what seems to be an irrelevant amount of money to the temple treasury, but Jesus calls attention to how important her gift was. He said she had actually given more than the others. We would think of her as one who might need help from the church, yet she was giving instead. God desires that we be giving people, and he does not quantify that the way our world does. There are not levels of donations honored on plaques. Instead God just asks that we give as we are prospered, whether that’s a lot or a little in the eyes of our society. If we are giving with the right heart, God will be honored and pleased.

 

Brian