give everything you have

In the One Year Bible today, we read from Luke 21:1-28. Jesus is watching people putting money into the box at church. Think about that! God is watching people come and give to His church. You know He probably wasn't too impressed with how much people gave!

But He WAS impressed with this one widow, who only gave a few small coins. He was impressed with her because she gave all she had. And of course it makes us wonder, "If she gave all she had, how did she pay rent? How did she eat?" And there are stories of people giving TOO much to their local church, to the point that they couldn't pay rent or buy food, and the local pastor had to give money back to them for practical things. Good hearted people, but with poor money management skills.

However, there is a very important way that this story comes home to us today. Time is our commodity. We only have so much of it in our lives. We're all given 24 hour days, and some of us are given more of them than others. But we all have a responsibility to use our time wisely. Some only give a few minutes here and there throughout their week... maybe just an hour on Sunday. But those who give ALL of their time to God are the wisest of all, because He redeems that time and makes it fulfilling. When we give our lives, the very minutes of our lives, to Him, we find that there is great joy in doing the things He calls us to do in those minutes.

Let's not be stingy with our money. There are poor people who need help. We can help them. But even more important, let's give all of our time to Him. When we do, and put the kingdom of God first, we will find all these things - all of these seconds and minutes and hours - added back to us in fulfilling joy.

God, thanks for redeeming our time.